The Fantastic Night Fury!
by LostMyPenName
Summary: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's The Fantastic Night Fury! When Hiccup discovers a strange new lifeform with incredible abilities, it seems like a blessing in disguise. However, these creatures catch the attention of some of Berk's most nefarious criminals. Will Hiccup be able to protect these new creatures, his city, and the people he loves? Superhero/Modern AU.
1. Chapter 1: The Machine

**Hello! Welcome to my second fic! I really wanted to finish my first fic before starting another one so that I could keep all my attention on it. However as I have been learning, creativity just happens when it happens and my attention will end up on whatever I happen to be more interested in at any particular time. So screw it, here's my second fic, I hope you enjoy :)**

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Chapter 1 : The Machine

He walked with urgency through the office, two thick binders tucked under his arm. From just looking you could tell that he had been in the office too long, his blonde hair and beard were messy and unkempt, his dress shirt and tie were disheveled, and his eyes were red and bloodshot from lack of sleep. Still, he walked forward with vigor until he reached the conference room, bursting in and slamming down the two binders.

"We've found it." He stated triumphantly.

The small group of people who sat at the table all looked up at him, perplexed and tired. "What are you talking about? Found what?" One woman asked.

"I know how to manipulate the Higgs boson."

Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to look over to him, wide eyed and slack jawed. One of the men stood up abruptly. "When? How?"

He pushed the two binders towards the middle of the table. "It's all there, all of it. In black and white. The equipment is being tested and double checked as we speak. I just need you to go over it and we can proceed."

"Proceed? When?"

"As soon as possible." The man said as if it was obvious. "We've been waiting forty years for this moment and we're almost there."

One of the women put her hands in front of herself cautiously "Let's not be hasty, we've thought that before and it didn't go well. Every precaution should be taken before we make a move, this has the potential to be extremely dangerous."

He nodded in agreement. "Of course, absolutely. Everything is being very carefully prepared.I have no intention to have a repeat of what hap-"

Before he could finish a man opened the door to the conference room and took a step inside. "We have some complications, the drone isn't responding to the controls and the machine…"

He paused and looked around. "It's not starting up for some reason, after I put in the numbers it just stopped. It could be the power source, I'm not sure."

"There must be something wrong with the numbers then…" The man trailed off. "I'm calling an emergency meeting, I want everyone up here immediately. We need to go through all the data and make sure it's all correct."

"...and the drone?"

"Have the head engineer call someone else to come fix it, we need all hands on deck right now."

* * *

Hiccup sat in a dimly lit movie theatre, a large bag of popcorn resting on his lap as he watched the screen intently. It was a movie marathon of one of his favourite comic-book superheros and he inched closer to the edge of his seat as the pivotal fight scene moved closer to it's climax. Right before the moment that the hero finally defeats the villain, Hiccup's phone began loudly ringing in his pocket, startling him and causing multiple people in the theatre to angrily shush him. "Crap." He fumbled with his phone, pulling it out of his pocket and glancing at the caller ID. "Great." He muttered in a sarcastic tone.

"What is it?" Fishlegs whispered from the seat next to him.

"It's the lab, I have to take this." Hiccup replied standing up and shuffling down the aisle. Once he had exited the theatre and was in the hall he answered the call and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

" _You need to get over here, right now."_

"What? It's Saturday night, I'm at the movies."

" _The drone isn't working, we need you to fix it."_

Hiccup groaned and placed a hand over his face. "Are you kidding? Can't it wait until Monday?"

" _No, it's extremely urgent."_

"Why? What's going on?"

" _I don't have time right now to explain everything, and most of it you don't have clearance for anyway. Just get down here and fix the drone. I have to go."_

"Wait-" _click._ Hiccup sighed heavily, just about the last place he wanted to be on a Saturday night was the lab, he was so tempted to just walk back in the theatre and ignore the call, but he didn't want to risk losing his job. So he walked begrudgingly out to the parking lot and got into his car and began driving to the lab.

Hiccup sighed, climbing out of his car and stepping out into the deserted parking lot, rubbing his tired eyes as they burned into his dimly lit phone screen. He glanced to the corner of his screen where the tiny characters _10:36 pm_ were illuminated. Hiccup entered the building, nodding to the men at the security desk as he passed them. He didn't understand why fixing the drone was so important that he had to come in at such an ungodly time but he wasn't really in a position to argue about it. Hiccup walked to the engineering workshop and grabbed his lab coat, putting it on. He went to where the drone usually was so that he could start checking it, but the drone wasn't there, much to his annoyance. Hiccup moved quickly down the halls looking in various rooms for where his boss was, but he couldn't find a single person anywhere and the lab was completely silent. Hiccup opened up his phone to send a message to his boss but the as he did a small message popped up on his phone screen.

 _No network available_

Hiccup stared at the screen for a moment, flabbergasted. "Oh come on, really? Right now?" He smacked his phone a few times and shook it angrily with no avail, sighed, and then continued his search around the lab. It was then that he noticed that the control room that looked over the machine was lit up and Hiccup ran over, swiping his key card to get in. Nobody was there but the controls for the drone were on. Actually, all the controls were all on. "What's going on?" He asked himself as he looked over at the monitors that were supposed to be showing live footage of the machine. For some reason they were just showing static, so instead Hiccup walked over to the window and looked through the thick glass. The lights were all on and lo and behold there was the drone, just sitting there, only a few metres from the airlock door. "Are you kidding me?" He growled. The room that the machine was in was one of the few rooms Hiccup did not have access to enter.

Hiccup stood with his forehead leaning up against the glass, debating on what he should do, whether he should leave, or stay and wait for someone to arrive. He sighed and moved to the drone controls and turned them off, almost ready to leave he suddenly thought of something, his head tipping to look in the direction of the workshop for a moment, his brain going a mile a minute. "Impossible, it's impossible." he murmured pacing around the room anxiously. Despite his efforts he couldn't keep it out of his mind. Finally he growled in frustration and stormed back to the workshop and over to his desk ripping open the top drawer and digging through the contents. From the bottom of the drawer he grabbed a old worn out key card. Hiccup wasted no time getting to the airlock that led to the room with the machine inside. Once at the door Hiccup held the key card above the card reader, shut his eyes and took a breath before swiping it and much to his surprise the door made a loud beeping noise and unlocked. He stood there for a moment, in disbelief, but quickly composed himself and cautiously walked through the airlock. Hiccup opened pressed the button to open the second door, only to hear a loud beep noise and the small message; _airlock_ _not pressurised, press again to proceed._ He narrowed his eyes at the message before pressing the open button again. Hiccup immediately felt an intense gust of air blow into the room from behind him, it was so strong it nearly knocked him off of his feet but he managed to keep steady by holding onto the door handle. Once Hiccup was steady he looked up at the machine, much to his surprise and confusion, it was on.

Something was there, in the middle of it all, a enormous orb, with the warped image of a sky inside of it. A sky, not too dissimilar from the sky he was used to. It was an orange tinted sky, and despite how bright it was, there were many visible stars scattered across it. There were also what appeared to be wispy purple clouds, and way back in the distance he could see the faint outline of another planet. The image of the sky was spiraled and morphed as if he was looking at it through a glass marble. What Hiccup saw before him was breathtaking and kept him frozen in astonishment for what felt like forever, but he was soon pulled out of his trance by the blaring of the airlock alarm. He had kept the door open too long. "Shit," He cursed letting go of the door quickly, and allowing it to slam shut. This did nothing to stop the alarm, it continued blaring away. Hiccup wanted to see what was through the machine, but he knew that the alarm had alerted security and he couldn't stay any longer, he had to let someone know that the machine was on. He rushed back through the airlock, across the hall and back to the workshop where he grabbed the emergency phone, dialing his boss's number and pressing the phone to his ear. As he waited, listening to the dial tone, he tapped his foot impatiently and stuffed his free hand into his pocket. He stopped for a moment, pulling out the old keycard he had used to get through the airlock, and looked down at it. The name on the card in peeling dry plastic was not Hiccup's name and the image, with white streaks and barely visible from overuse, was not a image of him. It showed a woman in her early thirties, she had long brown hair and blue eyes, underneath the picture the name Valka Haddock was printed.

Hiccup quickly stuffed the card underneath some files in his top drawer and locked the drawer shut.

 **I almost added more to this chapter simply because I thought it was too short, but I really like where this part ends so think of this chapter are sort of a prologue.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Creature

Chapter 2 : The Creature

Hiccup sighed, rubbing his tired eyes and pulling his sleeve up to check the time. The little green numbers on his digital watch displayed _1:47 am._ He groaned at how late it was and reached over to grab his coffee mug and take a sip from it. The whole lab was now bustling with tired and cranky scientists who had been called in due to the machine's malfunction.

"I hate you so much right now." Fishlegs grumbled as he stared into his computer screen with red drooping eyes. Fishlegs was Hiccup's closets friend, or perhaps a better description was that Fishlegs was Hiccup's only friend. He was a large pudgy guy, with a fat chin, scraggy blonde hair and stubby arms and legs. Fishlegs looked pretty much the same since before Hiccup could even remember. The two of them had been friends since first grade, and they had spent pretty much their entire school lives together, including university where they both got their master's in engineering.

Hiccup chuckled weakly. "Hey, it's not my fault the machine decided to start up on it's own."

"I don't even know why _I'm_ here, it was the machine that was acting weird not the fuel, I don't see why I need to sift through all this crap."

Hiccup took another sip from his coffee. "They don't know it wasn't the fuel, they don't know what it was at all. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it _was_ the fuel that stuff is super unstable."

"Too bad the cameras stopped working, maybe they could've seen what caused it to start up like that." Fishlegs looked over at Hiccup. "You seriously didn't see what happened?"

"I already told you, I just looked from the window, I could see this really bizarre light-orb looking thing, but it was there already by the time I got here." Hiccup said running his fingers through his hair. "So I didn't see how it started."

"I'm surprised they didn't kill you after you saw just that, they're seriously secretive about this stuff. I'm not even sure what I'm working on half the time." Fishlegs said with a sigh as he leaned back into his chair. "You'd think after all this time we would've made more progress. This is the first time they've gotten the machine to work and it was by accident, that's not a good sign."

"Welcome to the field of science." Hiccup said dryly.

Fishlegs let out a tired sounding laugh. "No kidding."

Hiccup stood up from his chair and took his coat from off of the back. "As much as I'd love to stay here for another three hours, I really need to get some sleep."

"Wait, you're just going to leave me here?" Fishlegs exclaimed whipping his head around.

Hiccup shrugged. "I finished my report, and I've been awake since nine this morning, if I stay any longer I'll hit the seventeen hour mark."

"Ugh fine." Fishlegs said slouching back into his seat. "Ditch me here."

Hiccup smiled and rolled his eyes as he pulled his coat on. "Uh-huh, see you on Monday."

Only a few people said goodbye or waved to Hiccup as he walked to the front of the building, under better circumstances more people would've greeted him but most weren't in the mood at two o'clock in the morning. Hiccup fumbled with his car keys, fingers already freezing just from a few moments outside of his warm pockets. He climbed into the driver's seat, it was just as frigid inside as outside and the steering wheel was ice cold, he pulled his coat sleeves over his hands slightly so he could grip it comfortably. Hiccup backed out of his parking space and drove out onto the empty road, the drive was a struggle to stay awake, he nearly fell asleep at a streetlight but was awakened by the sound of sirens and a cop car whizzing by his window. Even the usual thugs crowded in alleyways that would normally make Hiccup nervous, he didn't seem to notice in the slightest. By the time he had made it into his building's underground parking lot he felt like a corpse and he dragged himself up to his apartment and shuffled inside.

Hiccup kicked his shoes off and removed his coat, hanging it up before moving towards his bedroom. As he tried to take his shirt off, he noticed that he hadn't taken off his lab coat and was still wearing it. "Crap." He mumbled sleepily, pulling the lab coat off and throwing it onto a nearby chair. He proceeded to empty out the contents of his pant's pockets onto his bedside table, the last of which was his keycard, another thing he had neglected to put away before leaving the lab. Not wanting to forget it on Monday, Hiccup reached over to his lab coat and stuffed the card into one of the pockets. Just as he did, something moved past his hand and he recoiled sharply. The drowsiness he had been feeling up to now had completely disappeared, Hiccup was now more awake than ever.

For a moment he stood there, trying to convince himself that what he thought he had felt was not really what he felt, that he was just out of it from the lack of sleep and he had freaked himself out over nothing. This was short lived however, because as he stood there, the pocket his hand had just been inside started moving, as if there was something small, like a mouse, wriggling and squirming inside of his jacket pocket.

"What in Thor...?" Hiccup murmured squinting his eyes and leaning forward slightly as to get a better look at whatever it was. He didn't want to stick his hand back inside, especially not knowing what it was, but he certainly wouldn't be able to get any sleep if he just left it there. He grabbed a pen from his bedside table and inched closer, his neck strained and extended out in hopes that he would be able to see down into the pocket. The fabric was folded and wrinkled too much to see directly inside, so he moved the pen ever so slowly towards the lip of the pocket and used it to pull it open just enough to peer down inside. Whatever was in the pocket shot out at an impressive speed before Hiccup could get a look at it causing him to stumble backwards onto his bed. "Fuck." He cursed, eyes darting around the room, uncertain of where it went.

Hiccup got up and exited his bedroom, quickly shutting the door behind him. He stayed there leaning with his back against his bedroom door for a few moments, his fatigue catching up on him, but soon his eyes were drawn to the bottom of the door. He knelt down and pushed his fingers under the door, there was more than enough space between the floor and the door for whatever the thing was to crawl underneath. "Give me a break." Hiccup groaned.

He contemplated calling an exterminator but decided it wasn't worth the money since it was just one, one whatever it was. Instead, his solution was to lure it out with food, so Hiccup went to the kitchen, chopped and heated some hot dogs and left them on a plate by the door. Then, positioned in an arm chair a couple metres away, he waited for the creature to creep out from under the door...

BAM BAM BAM

Hiccup jolted out of his seat, eyes still blurry and hazy from sleep. He looked around the room in confusion for a moment before recognizing that the sound was coming from the front door. He carefully pulled himself up from his chair, wincing from the pain in his aching head and moved towards the door.

BAM BAM BAM

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." He grunted shuffling over, grabbing the handle, and swinging the door open to find a displeased looking Fishlegs on the other side. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't you answer your phone anymore? I called you like eight times."

Hiccup rubbed his eyes and moved out of the way so he could enter. "I was asleep."

"Yeah, I figured that out already." Fishlegs said walking inside. "There's some really big news at the lab right now, they've found evidence that some kind of lifeform came through the machine while it was on last night, the whole building is in a frenzy about it."

Hiccup furrowed his brows. "Lifeform?"

"Yeah, I know, they think it's still in the room that the machine is in, but they haven't been able to find it. A lot of people are saying that the reason they can't locate it is because it might not be detectable to humans. It's crazy." Fishlegs said pacing around the room.

"Not detectable?" Hiccup said flopping back down into his chair. "How do they know it hasn't gotten out of the lab or something?"

Fishlegs shook his head. "The room is hermetically sealed, and nobody has entered the room since you reported the malfunction, so there's no way it got out of there."

Hiccup began to feel a uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, his eyes slowly moved towards the plate on the floor which was now completely empty. "How much information do they have about this possible lifeform?"

"I don't know." Fishlegs said shrugging. "They wouldn't tell me much about it, they don't tell me anything. I think they're trying to keep this on the down low right now. If it went public there would be a lot of outcry about it."

"This is crazy." Hiccup muttered.

"I know, that's why we need to get back to the lab right now." Fishlegs insisted, gesturing towards the door. "This is history in the making, and they could seriously use our help."

"How did they get any evidence from the room if the drone isn't working?"

Fishlegs looked over at Hiccup. "...You didn't fix it?"

Hiccup shook his head. "No. I never got the chance."

"Right, right, you never went inside the room."

"...Right."

"Well, I don't know what was wrong with it, but as far as I know it's working perfectly fine now." Fishlegs replied shrugging. "It was probably a mistake."

"Yeah…" Hiccup said glancing around the room nervously. "Listen, I have some stuff to deal with here, just go back without me, I'll meet you there."

Fishlegs shot him a confused expression. "What? What stuff?"

"I have a pest, I need to catch it." Hiccup explained. "Just get back to the lab, I'll get there as soon as I can."

"What are you talking about? A pest? Can't it wait?" Fishlegs asked following Hiccup as he moved into his bedroom. "I don't think you understand the gravity of these findings, this lifeform isn't just some single celled organism, it's huge!"

Hiccup whipped his head around to look at Fishlegs. "Huge? It's huge? How do they know this if they haven't located it?"

"There was a footprint, it's like...the size of your head." He said making a motion with his hands to further illustrate the size.

Hiccup's demeanor relaxed a bit. "Oh…"

"Oh?" Fishlegs asked. "You're not excited by this?"

"No, no, I am." He replied quickly. "I'll go, just let me put down a mouse trap first."

* * *

Hiccup nervously fiddled with his pen, flicking it around his fingers and tapping it against his desk. He watched from the office as men and women speed walked back and forth down the hall carrying various pieces of equipment from room to room. The lab was extremely busy, practically anyone they could call in, they did call in. Everyone was needed to help out as they prepared to send the first person into the room with the machine. Hiccup was growing increasingly concerned of what they would find, or perhaps, what they wouldn't find. He couldn't be sure what he had compromised by walking through the airlock, but he hadn't known that the machine was on. Did the creature escape through the door when he left? He wasn't certain. Hiccup contemplated telling someone about it, but in the end decided not to, he didn't want to be fired, especially not over such a stupid mistake.

"Earth to Hiccup." He jumped at the sound of Fishlegs' voice. "You are seriously out of it, how long did you sleep last night?"

"Not enough." Hiccup grumbled.

"Well I was going to ask if you wanted to go for lunch, but I think you should take a nap or something, you look awful."

Hiccup shook his head. "No I'm going to stay here, they want a new drone now with a bunch of new upgrades and they're not being very patient about it."

"Another one?" Fishlegs asked.

"Yeah, apparently they're planning on starting the machine up again in a month or so and they need a drone to go in...in whatever that orb was. The one I already built isn't going to cut it anymore." He said with a heavy sigh. "It wouldn't be so difficult to accomplish if they hadn't taken half our engineering crew to work on other projects."

"Maybe you should ask for more time, and a break on Monday." Fishlegs suggested. "You already came in on Saturday night and you've been here since noon, if you work too long with no breaks you're going to burn yourself out."

Hiccup raised one eyebrow. " _You're_ the one who dragged me here this morning in the first place. Now you think I should go home?"

"I know, I know. It's just because it's crunch time right now, and we're so close to getting this to work." Fishlegs said trying to hold in his excitement. "But you look really bad right now, I think you should go home and get some rest. Just for today at least. I'll talk to Finn alright? He'll understand."

He nodded. "Alright, but just for today. I'm coming in tomorrow." Hiccup didn't understand why he was feeling so drained, sure he hadn't gotten much sleep last night, but this wasn't the first time he had been sleep deprived. It was frustrating to be feeling so under the weather while everyone else was working overtime but still he needed rest so he reluctantly returned home. Once home again, Hiccup quickly undressed and got ready to go to sleep, but just as he was about to climb into bed he remembered the mouse trap that he had left out. It was probably just him being paranoid about the whole situation but he wanted to check the trap to see if it had caught anything, and if so, what it had caught. Most of him believed that it was just a mouse that he had seen, but the tiny part of his mind that didn't, urged him to check. So he walked into the kitchen and opened one of the lower cupboards and peered inside to see if the trap had been set off.

It had. However what it had caught was not a mouse, not by a long shot. Whatever it was, it was dark and scaly, it looked like it was perhaps a salamander, but Hiccup had never seen a samalander quite like this one. It had strange flaps around the back of it's head and plates sticking out of it's back that went from the small creature's neck all the way to the end of it's tail very similar to a stegosaurus. It's feet were distinctly un-salamander like, it didn't have the long skinny fingers but instead large round feet with black claws. It most jarring thing though, were the black bat-like wings that the creature had on it's back.

Hiccup couldn't believe his eyes and he wasn't sure what to think about the creature before him. He stood up and rushed to his computer, opening up a browser and immediately searching for images of salamanders, lizards, or just anything that the creature could possibly be. Nothing. He couldn't find one single species that it could be. Hiccup turned to look over to where the mousetrap with the creature still lay and the horrific realization came over him.

"The first alien lifeform ever discovered...and I killed it." He said to himself quietly, before walking back over to the cupboard and slowly pulling the mousetrap out. As he moved the trap out, the creature moved making a growling noise, Hiccup immediately removed his hand, stumbling backwards onto the floor. "Fuck!" He stared at the creature for a moment. "It's alive?…it's alive!"

Hiccup moved forward and quickly grabbed the mousetrap, pulling it open to release the creature from it. It moved out from the trap squirming around on the floor, it was clearly injured. He cupped his hands together and scooped it up, rushing back into his bedroom where he placed the creature down onto a pillow.

Hiccup then started pacing back and forth in front of the bed occasionally throwing a nervous glance at the creature. "Shit, shit, shit! What am I supposed to do now?"

He wondered if he should bring it back to the lab and explain what happened, but if he did he would have to tell them that he lied about not going into the machine room. Hiccup thought maybe he could sneak it back into the lab and return it into the machine room since he still had the key card. Since the machine started working however, the room was on lockdown until it was decided to go back in, and he didn't know how long it would be until then. They said it was in two weeks but they never did anything as fast as they said they would. He looked over at the creature. It was clearly wounded, and he couldn't just leave it like that until he was able to return it. "A mousetrap!? You idiot!" Hiccup cried out in frustration at himself.

He would just have to take care of it somehow in the meantime, but as soon as the machine room became available, he would return the creature back to where it came from.

 **Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review! I really appreciate your feedback :)**


	3. Chapter 3: Toothless

**I'm currently away from home so I have lots and lots of time to spend writing yay! But this will also be the first birthday I've ever spent away from home :'( On the other hand, I'm now in a country where my birthday is a national holiday yay! Even more time to get some writing done :D**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

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Chapter 3 : Toothless

The engine hummed as Hiccup sat in his idling car on a quiet residential street. The sun was setting and the streetlights had already started coming on. He leaned forward in his seat so that he could get a better look at one of the houses from his car window. The lights were on, _of course,_ of all the nights he could get home early, he had to get home early _tonight_. Hiccup thought of just going home, he was tired from a long day at work and he really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, but he really didn't want to have to drive back tomorrow. He took a deep breath, put his car into park, and got out.

It felt like a while since he was last here but everything looked just like it always did. Hiccup walked up to the front door and pulled out his keys, unlocking the door. He stepped inside and as he shuffled his shoes off he heard loud booming footsteps moving towards him. "Hey dad." Hiccup said without looking up.

Hiccup's father, Stoick, was a large man, much larger than Hiccup. With his bulky build and his big red beard he shared very little resemblance with his son. "Hiccup...you didn't tell me you would be visiting."

"I'm not, I just need something from my room."

"...I heard there was a breakthrough at your office."

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, they got it to work a couple days ago."

"...Well that's good."

"Yeah."

There was a awkward silence for a short moment before Stoick spoke again. "...I guess I should let you get to it then."

"Right, yeah." Hiccup said as he moved towards the stairs and starting climbing up to where his room was.

The relationship between Hiccup and his father had always been kind of awkward and strained. Hiccup was often the type to push boundaries, and his father never knew how to deal with it, he still didn't. It didn't help how much time Stoick spent at work and how little he spent at home.

Hiccup opened the door to his room, it was pretty much the same as it was since he moved out after graduation. All of his stuff remained completely untouched, comic books still neatly stacked on their shelf, rolled posters in the corner right where he left them, even his trash can still had the same garbage that he had left behind. He opened his closet and from the back corner he pulled out a small glass terrarium. Hiccup had briefly owned a pet turtle as a child and he still had the terrarium that he had kept it in. The rocks, fake plants, and other similar items and been tossed inside. Hiccup picked up the whole thing and walked it back to his car. He couldn't be sure what the creature needed for a habitat, but once it was able to move again he didn't want it to be able to just run around his apartment. The terrarium was his best solution for the time being.

Hiccup set everything up as soon as he got home. He spread the rocks across the bottom of the terrarium and placed down a few of the plastic plants. He then gently placed the creature inside, left a few more pieces of chopped up hotdog for it to eat, and put the lid on top.

Hiccup looked at it from through the glass. "Goodnight." He said with a small smile.

* * *

Hiccup made his way down the halls of the lab until he reached the chemical lab, he walked inside, and found Fishlegs typing away at his computer, brows furrowed in concentration. Hiccup knocked against the wall. "Hey, you want to go for lunch?"

Fishlegs looked up, a little surprised by Hiccup's presence, before glancing at his watch. "Oh, yeah, sorry, I got caught up in my work."

"Don't worry about it, things have been pretty crazy around here." Hiccup said casually leaning against the wall. "Everytime I look something else has changed and I need to start all my work from scratch."

Fishlegs got out of his chair, grabbed his lunch, his laptop, and a messy bundle of papers. "Okay, let's go."

Hiccup cocked his eyebrow at Fishlegs. "You're bringing your work? I can wait if you need to finish something."

"No, no need, I want to show you something." He said shaking his head and walking towards the door. "Come on, let's go."

They walked over to the staff cafeteria which was mostly empty, most likely due to how busy everyone was, and they sat down at one of the tables. Fishlegs dumped all of his things down and began sorting them all, pushing papers around into piles and moving his lunch bag off to the side.

Hiccup just sat there for a while, watching his friend shuffle through the mess of documents and reports. "Are you going to tell me what all of this is or what?"

He looked up and nodded, an excited grin slowly creeping onto his face. "They found a new molecule in the room."

"...yay?"

Fishlegs frowned. "Yes, yay. A brand new organic molecule from an alien location, this is huge!"

"You're the chemical engineer, not me. I don't know anything about this stuff."

"Well it's huge." He said looking around at all the papers scattered across the table. "We might be able to understand whatever lifeforms exist through the machine better by understanding this one molecule."

"Where did they find it?"

"It was in the air, and it seems like it's of a pretty high concentration in their atmosphere. So whatever it is it must be an integral part of the life over there." Fishlegs explain as he looked over a document.

"Over there? Do we even know what over there is?"

Fishlegs shrugged. "They still haven't told me much, but everyone is pretty sure it's a Einstein-Rosen bridge. Where it leads, we're still not sure. An alien planet maybe?"

Hiccup stood up and moved to Fishlegs' side of the table to look around at all of his work. "If it was a alien planet, how did they know it had life on it? How could they possibly know that before opening the machine?"

"Maybe they didn't."

Hiccup shook his head. "What are the chances that the first planet they open the bridge to just happens to have life on it, and not just any life, moving, breathing, life."

"We don't know that yet." Fishlegs corrected. "We haven't actually seen it, so we don't know if it can move or breathe."

"...Right, right."

"I can't wait until they find it, it's going to be a massive breakthrough once we have a alien lifeform in captivity."

Hiccup laughed nervously. "Won't that be exciting."

The screech of a moving chair startled them both and they glanced over to the far end of the table where an old man was mopping the floor.

"Afternoon Mildew." Fishlegs said waving to the janitor. Mildew just shot them a quick glare before moving to the next table. "Sheesh, that guy is always in a bad mood, what's his problem?"

"Who knows." Hiccup replied shrugging. "So, anyway, did they assign you to study it or did you just find out from the others?"

"I've been assigned to study it." Fishlegs said grinning. "I'm so excited right now, this is the kind of thing I really wanted to work on when I started here." He then shuffled through some papers and handed one to Hiccup. "Here, look at this, it's the information about the molecular compound."

Hiccup took the document and scanned it. "It's really long."

Fishlegs nodded. "It's a really complicated molecule. We still don't know if it will have a negative effect on humans, that's why their being so careful about going back into the room. So far it seems alright but better safe than sorry I guess."

"...A negative affect? Like what?"

"We're still not sure, but we have to be cautious of any foreign molecules." Fishlegs explained. "I wouldn't take the risk personally, we don't know very much about it, but Finn insisted on pushing forward as fast as possible."

"Well they don't call him fearless Finn Hofferson for nothing."

Fishlegs chuckled. "Yeah I guess you're right, well as long as I'm not the one going in, it's not a problem for me."

"You want a coffee? I'm going to grab a cup." Hiccup asked standing up from his chair.

"Sure, thanks."

Hiccup walked over to the coffee machine and grabbed two mugs from the cupboard above his head. As he poured coffee into the first cup he peered out the door just as a blonde-haired girl walked by. He knew who it was immediately and moved to the doorway to see where she was going. It was Astrid, she was beautiful as always and Hiccup couldn't help but steal the occasional glance. She had long golden blonde hair that was always fashioned into a braid that she left draped over her shoulder. Her body type would be best described as fit, she was slim but toned at the same time.

Astrid and Hiccup has known each other since grade school but despite Hiccup always noticing Astrid, Astrid never really noticed Hiccup. She was the niece of Finn Hofferson, the head physicist and the guy in charge of their whole operation. Hiccup obviously had no complaints when he found out that he was going to be working for her uncle, especially knowing how close she was to him. Her visits to the lab were relatively common, though Hiccup rarely interacted with her during her time there and when they did it was very brief and usually had to do with work at the lab or her uncle.

Hiccup stole another glance down the hall at Astrid, she paced and wandered down the halls as if she was lost, which was strange since she had been to the lab many times. He moved halfway into the hall so she could see him. "Hey, Astrid, are you looking for something?"

She looked up at him. "I'm looking for my uncle, he asked me to drop some documents off." Cradled in her arms was a large bundle of papers. "He always asks me to drop stuff off here but never tells me where he is." She groaned in annoyance.

"I can take them to him if you want." Hiccup offered.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Astrid replied. "I was told to only give this to him personally, apparently it's very important, and also very secret."

Hiccup nodded. "Right, of course. Well, good luck."

"Thanks." She said walking back down the hall.

He sighed and leaned against the door frame as she walked away. Astrid was one of those girls, the kind that was popular, the kind that was admired by everyone, the kind guys always liked. Astrid was _Astrid,_ and Hiccup...was Hiccup. He knew he didn't have a chance back in grade school, and he knew it even better now. Hiccup moved from the doorway and filled the second mug with coffee, returning to the table.

* * *

The front door swung open and Hiccup walked inside, dumping his bag onto the floor and stumbling inside with his shoes still on. Work was a nightmare, it was non-stop work and lots of overtime. Everyday started to feel like a marathon. Hiccup walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bag of leftover fast food and placed it on the table.

He looked at the terrarium, he had left it on the kitchen table since it was the only spot big enough in his apartment. The creature sat curled up under the rock-shelter that was inside, it's large green eyes looking up at him. "I guess you're probably hungry." Hiccup said quietly to it, standing up and moving back to the fridge. No hotdogs, he sighed. Most of his food had been eaten and he hadn't found the time to go shopping lately, work was now seven days a week. Hiccup moved over to the pantry and shuffled through the old and forgotten items until he came across and old can of tuna. "This will have to do." He said grabbing a can opener from a nearby drawer.

After opening up the can, Hiccup took the top off of the terrarium and grabbed a small amount of tuna with his fingers. He watched as the creature slowly crept out from underneath his shelter and stared up at his hand. It was hungry, it hadn't eaten all day. Hiccup dropped the meat and it fell right in front of the creature. It dove forward and gobbled up the tuna with impressive speed and immediately looked up at him with a face that said "More." He grabbed another bit of meat from the can and dropped it inside, again the creature ate it very quickly, this time licking it's lips. Hiccup laughed "You're actually pretty cute." He grabbed more tuna, this time attempting to get the creature to eat straight from his hand. It did so quite happily but once the meat was all gone it tried to eat one of Hiccup's fingers, the creature didn't have any teeth so all it did was squish his finger between it's soft gums. This did not work at all and only made Hiccup laugh more.

"You can't eat me, you're toothless."

 **Thanks for reading, please leave a review I really appreciate them!**


	4. Chapter 4: They Grow Up So Fast

**Hello everyone! Just a note; I will be changing my username soonish so keep that in mind if you're ever looking for me by name. The reason I say soonish is because I'm going to change it after putting a similar message on my other fanfiction so I can reach as many of my readers as possible. Obviously this won't be a issue for anyone who follows me or either of my stories, but for anyone without an account or who reads my stuff but isn't following me; BEWARE! I WILL BE UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME!**

 **Anyways…**

* * *

Chapter 4: They Grow Up So Fast

"Hey there bud." Hiccup said with a smile as he reached into the terrarium so that the creature, now named Toothless, could climb into his hand. "How are you this morning?" Toothless just made a quiet purring sound and paced around in his hand happily. "Let's get some breakfast, shall we?" Hiccup walked over to the pantry, Toothless still in his hand, and grabbed a can of tuna and a loaf of bread. "Toast for me, fish for you."

He put Toothless down on the counter and plugged in the toaster, sticking two pieces of bread inside. Then he opened a drawer and took out the can opener, placing it beside the can of tuna before moving over to the fridge and looking inside. "What do you think? Jam or butter?" Hiccup nodded. "I agree, jam is better." He said grabbing a jar of jam and walking back over to the counter. Once there, he noticed Toothless struggling to pull a small table knife towards the toaster. Hiccup smiled. "Thanks bud." He said crouching down slightly to look at Toothless better. "You're a smart little guy aren't you?"

The ding of the toast caught Hiccup's attention and he stood up straight to grab a small plate from one of the cupboards above his head. "Maybe I can teach you some tricks? How would you like that?" He glanced over to Toothless, only to find him climbing into the toaster in an attempt to retrieve his toast. "Toothless, no!" Hiccup yelled rushing over and plucking him out by the tail. Much to his surprise, Toothless was completely unharmed. "You're surprisingly hard to kill you know that?" He said letting out a sigh of relief. Hiccup place Toothless back down onto the countertop. "You must be really heat proof or something." Hs scoffed. "Too bad, it doesn't get very hot around here."

Hiccup took the can opener and cracked open the can of tuna, putting a small amount onto the plate and pushing it towards Toothless. "There, that should keep you out of trouble for a little while."

It was then that Hiccup's phone began buzzing inside of his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the caller ID, it was Fishlegs. Hiccup put the phone to his ear as he grabbed another plate from the cupboard.

"Hey, I'm almost out, I just need to eat breakfast."

" _It's happening soon dude, you better hurry up."_

"What's happening?" He asked gingerly taking his toast from the toaster and placing it onto his plate.

" _They're going in."_

Hiccup stopped in his tracks. "They're going into the room? Already?"

" _What do you mean 'already'? They should've gone in weeks ago, after what happened I'm surprised they're only going in now."_

"When?"

" _A few hours, tops. It's just a few people in suits but they're hoping they can gather more information about the lifeform. Everyone's going to watch, you should get here as soon as you can."_

Hiccup glanced over to Toothless, who was still eating the tuna. "Ok, I'll be there in twenty."

" _Awesome, see you then."_ click.

He wasted no time, he quickly picked up Toothless, placed him into his pocket, grabbed his coat and whipped out the door. This was it, he had been waiting weeks to finally be able to return Toothless to the lab and now was his chance. He just had to let Toothless out when they opened the first airlock door, or maybe give one of the people going in a pat on the back with Toothless in his hand, and bam, he would be home free. He would finally be able to breathe easy...right? He should feel excited to finally be able to return Toothless, just having him was dangerous, and not just dangerous for his job. This was the moment he had been waiting for this whole time, but suddenly he didn't feel so good about it. What would they do to Toothless once they found him? Would they do experiments on him? Dissect him? Hiccup shuddered at the thought.

As he walked into the lab he couldn't help but feel the creeping feeling of dread coming over him. He didn't want to return Toothless, he was afraid of what they would do to him, he was afraid he would never get to see the small creature again.

"Hey, you made it, they're almost ready." Fishlegs said grabbing Hiccup's arm a pulling him towards the airlock door. Everyone was crowded around it, exited smiles on their faces. Three men in suits marched out from down the hall, the only one Hiccup recognized was Finn, who stood at the front of the group. "Finn's going in?" Fishlegs whispered. "He's the head physicist, shouldn't he be letting someone else go in? Someone more expendable?"

"You're honestly surprised?" Someone else whispered back. "You should know by now that Finn would never let anyone go in without him."

They continued whispering to one another, gossiping about how reckless it was for him to go in. Hiccup didn't notice any of it. He just stood there debating with himself. He kept visualizing walking up to Finn, wishing him luck and giving him a small pat on the back and sticking Toothless right to his back, but as Finn and the others got closer and closer to the airlock, Hiccup's body refused to move. No matter what he told himself, he couldn't bring himself to let Toothless go. He wasn't ready to let Toothless go, it was too soon, far too soon. Finn stopped at the door, gave everyone a triumphant wave, and walked through the airlock door with the two other men, shutting it behind him, and there it went. Hiccup's chance had come and gone, and even though he missed it completely, he somehow felt a great deal of relief come over him.

"You alright?" Fishlegs asked, looking over at Hiccup.

He nodded. "Yeah, just, nervous."

"Yeah, me too. Do you think they'll find anything?"

Hiccup shrugged. "Who knows."

* * *

Hiccup kicked his shoes off shutting the front door behind him, and looked over to where Toothless' terrarium sat on the kitchen table. He put his hand into his pocket and scooped Toothless out, then walked over to the terrarium and placed him back inside. "I guess you're staying with me now." Hiccup looked around the room. "I'm probably going to need to find a more permanent location for you now." Toothless pressed his front feet up against the glass and looked to Hiccup. "Do you have anywhere in mind?" Toothless backed up and paced around. "Alright, alright." He said with a laugh, before plucking Toothless out of his terrarium and placing him onto the floor. Toothless started walking around the apartment, looking around and sniffing anything he came in contact with. He stopped right below the large window in the living room and stared up at it, making soft noises and shooting the occasional glance over at Hiccup. "You've got a good eye there." He said smiling down at Toothless. Toothless looked up at Hiccup and attempted to imitate his smile, but his lack of teeth made it look very awkward. Hiccup chuckled in response.

Hiccup then went to work trying to find something for Toothless' terrarium to sit on, he didn't have a whole lot of furniture lying around so it was a little difficult to find something not in use. He finally settled on taking his bedside table and moving it to the living room. "We're going to have to buy a new table once we have the time." Hiccup said as he dragged the bedside table in from his bedroom. He shoved it right under the window and beside the sofa, then backed up to look at the placement. "I mean it's not the best looking place for it, but hey, it's not only my apartment anymore right?" Toothless made a cooing noise in response. Hiccup walked back to the kitchen table and picked up the terrarium with both arms, propping it up onto his chest and began walking back over to the living room.

BAM BAM BAM

Hiccup nearly dropped it he was so startled by the sudden sound.

"Hiccup! Big news!"

He groaned. "Come on Fishlegs, I just got home."

"It's really exciting! They were able to get more samples of the molecule and-, open the door I have some with me!"

Hiccup quickly stumbled into the living room and put down the terrarium. "Hold on, I'm moving some stuff right now." He said as he looked around at the floor, trying to locate Toothless, but he wasn't where he last saw him.

"Ok well-, oh wait, the door's open." Hiccup's head snapped around to the door and watched in horror as Fishlegs let himself in. Toothless, where was Toothless? He couldn't see him anywhere. Fishlegs looked over to where Hiccup was standing. "Did you get a pet or something?"

"Uhh...yes."

"Cool." Fishlegs walked closer and leaned forward slightly in order to see inside of the terrarium. "Where is it? Can I see it?"

"Well, not yet." Hiccup said. "I'm planning on getting a pet, I haven't bought it yet."

Fishlegs stared in through the glass. "Hey...isn't this your old turtle's stuff? You still have all this? So are you getting another turtle?"

"Um...well actually I was thinking of maybe a salamander?" Hiccup said, trying his best to act natural. "I haven't decided yet."

Fishlegs nodded. "Salamanders are cool."

"...are you hungry? I haven't eaten yet, so maybe we could grab a bite and you could show me these new findings there." Hiccup suggested, gesturing towards the door.

"Actually I think it's better if we stay here, this stuff is top secret." Fishlegs said. "But we can order in, where are your flyers?" He moved towards the kitchen but as he did, Toothless scuttered across the floor and right under where Fishlegs' foot was about to land.

"Fishlegs stop!"

He stopped mid step, looked down at the scaly black creature beneath his foot and let out a horrified high pitched scream before falling backwards onto his butt. "What is that?!" He screeched.

Hiccup dove to the floor, grabbing Toothless with both hands. "A salamander, it's my salamander!"

"Last time I checked, salamander's don't have wings!"

"Well...uhh...this kind does…?" Fishlegs just stared at him, disbelief and shock written all over his face.

"Is it from the lab or something? Is there some experiment going on that I don't know about?"

"...Yes."

Fishlegs scowled. "Fine, if you're going to be that way, I'll ask Finn about it myself." He said standing back up.

Hiccup rushed over to him and grabbed his arm. "No, no, no, don't do that."

"Then what is it?"

He sighed, dropping his shoulders and releasing Fishlegs' arm. "Ok, don't freak out." Hiccup said putting his hands up defensively

"You saying that is already freaking me out!"

"...I went into the room the day the machine turned on."

Fishlegs furrowed his brows. "What does that have to do with…" The sudden realization hit him like a slap in the face and he gasped in horror. "No."

"...Yes."

Fishlegs jumped to his feet, his shock turning to anger. "You did not take a...and you kept it? What if it was…? You could be dead and...everybody thinks that it's...and...UUGHH!" He was so angry he couldn't even finish a thought, he just kept yelling in fragmented sentences. "Why would you take something like that out of the lab?! Do you have any idea how irresponsible that is?!"

"I didn't take it out okay? I was only in the room for a few minutes, it must have latched onto me or something." Hiccup explained in a relaxed voice, hoping that it would calm Fishlegs down, it did nothing of the sort.

"Then why for Thor's sake do you still have it?!"

"...I was going to return it...but I just couldn't." Hiccup said sighing. "I was afraid of what they would do to him. They would probably do tests on him, I couldn't let that happen."

"Of course they would do tests on it, it's a alien lifeform, we have no idea what it's capable of!" Fishlegs pulled a small vile of liquid out of his pocket and showed it to Hiccup. "I came to show you this. It's the molecule, we just found out it has traces of radiation. That _thing_ could be radioactive for all we know, you can't keep it here."

" _Toothless_ isn't going anywhere, if we give him to the lab we have no idea what they'll do to him, and they obviously won't tell us because they never tell us anything." Hiccup said shaking his head. "He's intelligent, Fishlegs, he's not just like any animal, he smart and loyal and caring."

"You're right." Fishlegs said. "He's not like any animal, he's an alien lifeform, not a pet. You need to grow up Hiccup, this is how science works. When we discover something we have to do tests on it, _especially_ when it could be dangerous."

"Toothless is not dangerous."

"We don't know that. Even if he's not hostile, he could be carrying a pathogen or a parasite or who knows what else. You're endangering the entire human species!" He cried out, throwing his arms into the air. "We have to take him to the lab!"

Hiccup shook his head. "No, there has to be another way."

"Give it to me!" Fishlegs yelled as he tried to grab Toothless out of Hiccup's hands but Toothless scuttered away quickly causing Fishlegs and Hiccup to both fall to the ground.

"Ugh!" Hiccup grunted as Fishlegs fell on top of him. "Get off of me!"

Fishlegs rolled off of Hiccup and into a sitting position on the floor. "Where did it go? Where did it go?" He asked looking around, it was then that he noticed that the vial containing the foreign molecule had fallen and shattered onto the floor, creating a small puddle. "Oh no, no this is bad. We have to call the lab right now, we still don't know what that stuff can do." Fishlegs said getting up.

"Wait, wait, it's fine, it's just a little we can clean it up, I'll get some gloves." Hiccup said standing and grabbing Fishlegs' arm.

"Just a little? It's irradiated material, Hiccup, that stuff is dangerous! You do realize radiation never leaves your body right?"

"It's like a teaspoon's worth of liquid, you need a crap ton more than that to kill a person."

"Radiation builds up in your body! If we get too much over time, we die!"

"Yeah, because I'm sure you're exposed to radiation so often. Besides it's not radioactive, it's just been irradiated, you said so yourself."

"That's not the point, it's-" Fishlegs stopped mid sentence and stared down at the ground. "Um, that's not good."

Hiccup turned to look where Fishlegs was staring and saw Toothless standing in the middle of the puddle licking up the liquid from the ground. "Toothless, no!" Before Hiccup could move an inch, something incredible began to happen. Toothless began growing...and growing...and growing at a incredible rate. He grew so big that he nearly filled the entire living room, he couldn't even open up his wings properly he was so large. His tail stretched out all the way into the bedroom and his head nearly hit the ceiling. Hiccup and Fishlegs had to look up at him, his green eyes, now enormous, looked down at them as if everything was normal.

"Hiccup…" Fishlegs said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Did you know he could do that?"

"I did not."

"...I see."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed and please remember to leave a review, I love to read your feedback :D**


	5. Chapter 5: That Won't Fly

**Sorry for the delay, been a little busy lately so I haven't had a lot of time to spend writing. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!  
**

* * *

Chapter 5: That Won't Fly

"Let's not panic, okay?"

"Not panic?" Fishlegs asked, in a decidedly panicked, though still hushed, tone.

"I told you already, he's not dangerous. He won't us hurt."

"Why don't you tell that to his razor sharp teeth?"

Hiccup looked up at Toothless, and indeed, he now sported and nice shiny set of sharp white teeth. "Toothless...you have teeth?" Toothless bent his head down to sniff at the two of them as they sat sprawled out on the living room floor, much to Fishlegs' dismay, and then proceeded to lick Hiccup with his enormous tongue. "Argh! Toothless, stop!" Toothless moved his head back and tipped it to the side, an innocent look on his face. "Oh, don't give me that. You know what you did." Hiccup said, dripping with saliva. "This stuff better wash out."

"Why are you talking to it?"

"I told you, he's intelligent, he's not just any life form."

"...You can say that again."

Hiccup looked over to what was left of the puddle on the ground. "Whatever was in that vial changed him to be huge, what exactly was in there?"

"The molecule, that's it." Fishlegs said. "...Maybe we're thinking about this the wrong way, the molecule in there came from his world, it's in the air, it's everywhere."

"...So you're saying…?"

"So it's mostly likely not that the molecule made it bigger, it's whatever is or isn't in our world that made it smaller." He explained. "That must be why they found such a large footprint even though it was so small. It probably came through large, and after being exposed to our atmosphere shrunk somehow."

"Shrunk? How is that even possible?"

"You work at a lab that just created a machine that makes portals and you're asking how this is possible?"

"Alright...fair enough." Hiccup said holding his hands up in defeat. "But how do we get him back to normal size? Er...abnormal size...how do we make him small again?"

"Presumably we just wait until the molecule's effect wears off, I don't know how long that would take, probably a while, it may not have looked like much but the contents of that vile was pretty concentrated." Fishlegs looked over at Hiccup optimistically. "Are you finally going to return it to the lab?"

Hiccup scowled and got up from off of the floor. "Fishlegs, no."

"I know you have an emotional connection to it, but it isn't a dog, and this isn't it's natural habitat, we can see that now. Clearly there's something lacking in our atmosphere that it needs."

"Because Finn would return it to it's natural habitat, right?" Hiccup scoffed moving over to where Toothless was. "I'm not trying to bag on you, or the lab, or Finn, but I just can't do it Fishlegs. Toothless is intelligent, he's loyal, he's kind, and he's amazing. I just need to prove it to the others at the lab."

Fishlegs sighed and stood up. "That's all great Hiccup, but what you really need to prove is that he's not a threat and that he's trainable. If you can prove that, then you might have case here."

"You think Finn would understand?"

"Oh no, no, definitely not." Fishlegs replied shaking his head. "Finn is a man of science, that won't fly with him. He's going to want to study and dissect Toothless no matter what you prove."

Hiccup scowled. "Then-"

"It's the press you want to prove it to." He explained. "If we can convince the press that Toothless is a peaceful, trainable creature that is possibly in danger, they'll jump on that so fast we'll have ourselves a public outcry in less than a week."

Hiccup smirked. "You said 'we' just there." Fishlegs sighed again. "You're the best, the best friend that there has ever been."

He nodded. "Yeah yeah, just keep him out of trouble okay? I won't tell anyone as long as you keep this contained."

"Of course."

"And let me take a few samples of saliva or dead skin. I'll try and sneak it in with the other samples from the room and hopefully we can get a little more information about him." Fishlegs said peering up nervously at Toothless. "I want to make sure he isn't carrying any viruses or bacteria. Though if you've had him this long, you most likely would've contracted something if there was anything to contract."

Hiccup nodded. "Okay I'll get a swab. Oh, and, do you think you could sneak any more of that molecule out of the lab?"

"Don't you think it's in our best interest to keep him at a manageable size?"

"I do, but if he's being deprived of something important by being exposed to our atmosphere, I'm worried it could be harming him." Hiccup explained.

"I'll look into it." Fishlegs replied. "In the meantime, you should keep an eye on him to see if you notice anything different about him other than size. Before today he had been without any exposure to the molecule for weeks did you notice any weakness or fatigue?"

"Not really." He replied swabbing the inside of Toothless' mouth.

"Hmmm, interesting." He said scrunching up his face in thought. "Maybe his smaller form is almost like a hibernation and that can keep him going for extended periods of time. I'll have to do some studying back at the lab."

Hiccup nodded and handed Fishlegs the swab. "Okay, sounds good."  
Fishlegs took it and walked over to the door, opening it. "If he's still this size by tomorrow morning, call in sick, you can't leave him alone like that." Hiccup nodded again. "Alright, see you later." Fishlegs exited the apartment and shut the door behind him.

Hiccup turned to look over at Toothless, who was sniffing around the living room, knocking down various items with his tail as he did. He sighed. "What am I going to do with you?" Toothless kept looking around until his eyes set onto the living room window. He stopped moving and just stared out at the sky. Hiccup moved to stand beside him and put a hand on one of his wings. "What are you thinking about bud?"

* * *

Hiccup walked into the chem lab, shuffling past a few other people as they exited the room, leaving Fishlegs as the last person inside. He was busy as usual, tapping away at his computer with a look of complete concentration on his face.

"Did you hear?" Hiccup asked, pulling a small stool towards Fishlegs and taking a seat down beside him. "About the, uh, mission?"

Fishlegs looked up from his computer. "Mission?"

"I'm not sure what else to call it."

"What is it?"  
"They're going in." Hiccup replied. "Not the room this time, they're going to try turning the machine on again, and if it works...they're going in."

Fishlegs looked up suddenly, shocked. "In? Really?"

"In. Really."

"That's...fast." He replied. "I mean, it's only been two weeks since they even entered the room. We barely even started doing drone trials. It was Finn's decision wasn't it."

"Of course it was Finn." Hiccup chuckled. "Who else would be crazy enough to try going in so soon after getting the machine to work? They're sending my drone in and then they're going in right after. The more evidence they get that there's some form of life on the other side the more ancy they get about going in to see for themselves."

"Do you think they'll find… you know? One of them?"

Hiccup shrugged. "I have no idea, maybe Toothless was a fluke, or maybe whatever is on the other side is crawling with creatures like him." He sighed. "Honestly I'm a bit concerned about it, about their safety."

"Who? The people going in or the creatures on the other side?"

"Both."

"They know what they're getting themselves into, especially after only preparing for two weeks. And as for the creatures...well the creatures, we will have to try and deal with that aspect. The sooner we get this public the sooner we can get them legal protection."

Hiccup nodded. "Right, and speaking of two weeks, that's how long it's been since...you know what happened to you know who, have you managed to find anything out?"

Fishlegs shook his head. "Not much, I've been swamped with work so I haven't had a great deal of time to devote to it. Plus I'm trying my best to hide this from the others which isn't exactly easy when you share a lab."

"Yeah, I hear you. I've been pretty busy too."

"But, I did manage to finish working on this." Fishlegs said handing Hiccup a small plastic baggie with several small white balls inside, about the size of tic tacs.

Hiccup took the baggie from Fishlegs and inspected it. "You didn't start doing drugs did you?"

"No! It's the molecule." Fishlegs exclaimed. "You said you wanted some for Toothless. Based on how long you said it lasted the last time he ingested the molecule I made a dry version that should turn him large for about a hour or so, maybe a little longer. I figure that's a pretty manageable amount of time, right?"

"Yeah that's great, thanks Fish." Hiccup said smiling and looking down at the small baggie in his hands. "So I just feed him one?"

Fishlegs nodded. "Yes, if you think that he's getting weak or ill just feed him one of those and it should rejuvenate him. I'm still not quite sure how this all works, so if you notice anything out of the ordinary let me know."

"Of course."

"Anyway, I have to get back work, but I'll let you know if I find anything of note." Fishlegs said looking back towards his computer.

"Right, I should probably get back too, I'll talk to you later, bye." Hiccup replied turning to exit the room. As he walked out into the hallway he looked down at the small molecule pills in his hands. He hadn't told Fishlegs what he was planning to do with them, he knew that he would have fifty fits if he found out. Hiccup felt a little nervous about it, but at the same time he felt extremely excited. He just couldn't stop thinking about it, and he kept staring down at the baggie and grinning like an idiot. This of course meant he wasn't looking were he was going and it didn't take long until he crashed into someone standing in the hall as he turned a corner. They both tumbled to the ground along with a large pile of papers that flew into the air at impact.

"Argh! Hiccup!"

Hiccup's head immediately snapped upwards and came face to face with a set of oh-so-familiar blue eyes. "Astrid!" He then looked down at the ground to where various fallen papers lay strewn across the floor, the papers weren't his, so that could only mean one thing. "I am so sorry, I'll get those." He said quickly moving to gather them up.

"Were you on your phone? Watch where you're going!" She growled in annoyance.

Hiccup started piling the papers back up into a stack. "I'm really sorry, I wasn't looking, I should've been, I'm an idiot."

She sighed heavily. "They're going to be all out of order now. Ugh, I should've stapled them."

"I'm really, really, sorry. It's for Finn right? You can tell him it was my fault." Hiccup said handing her the stack of papers.

"Don't worry about it, I can deal with it." She said taking them from him and standing back up.

"I can-" Hiccup noticed the baggie on the floor and quickly grabbed it and stuffed it into his pocket. "I can help you reorganize them if you want." He stood up and faced her.

Astrid smirked. "You think my uncle would let me do that?"

Hiccup nodded and chuckled. "Yeah, you're probably right, sorry."

"You don't have to apologize so much." Astrid said. "Well, I should get going."

"Yeah, me too, everyone's been really busy preparing for the…" He noticed that Astrid's face dropped a little. Hiccup cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, I'm sure he'll be okay, Finn is a tough guy."

"I'm surprised you of all people are so optimistic about it." Immediately after the words left her mouth she winced and looked away slightly. "Sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"It's fine." Hiccup said waving his hand slightly. "I know better than anyone what could happen. But still, it's been over ten years since then, and they've got everything under control." In reality Hiccup wasn't certain at all, but he wanted to make Astrid feel better, and this was the only way he knew how. "I'm sure your uncle will be fine."

Astrid smiled at him. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"I'll see you around I guess." She said waving goodbye as she turned and walked down the hall towards the elevators.

* * *

"Alright, I think this spot looks good." Hiccup said looking around as he used his hand to shield the sun from his eyes. "What do you think bud?" He asked turning to Toothless, who was perched on his right shoulder. Toothless looked around at the vast empty field that they stood in and cooed happily. "Good, because we're already two hours from the city, I'm not going any further than this."

Hiccup then squatted down and extended his arm to the ground like a ramp for Toothless to walk down. Toothless made his way to the ground and Hiccup yanked out the small baggie from his pocket and took out one of the small white balls. "Let's hope Fishlegs did this right" He said before dropping the ball in front of Toothless. Toothless wasted no time, and quickly gobbled it up with delight, licking his lips once finished.

It didn't take long for the molecule to begin taking effect on Toothless, and only ten seconds later he was already at his full, enormous size. The excitement on Toothless' face was clear to see and he spread his wings out wide and leapt into the air only to plummet to the ground a few seconds later.

"Toothless what's wrong?" Hiccup asked rushing over to the large creature's side. Toothless just tried leaping into the air again, but he just fell to the ground again with a screech and a loud thud. "What's wrong buddy?"

Toothless looked up at Hiccup with a saddened expression before glancing down at his tail. Hiccup took the cue and rushed over to inspect Toothless' tail, and once he took a good look, his stomach dropped. Toothless was missing his left tail fin, and the instant he saw that, he knew it was his fault. When Toothless had gotten caught in the mousetrap, it had been clamped down onto his tail. The overwhelming feeling of guilt hit him like a sack of bricks. Hiccup stared down at Toothless' injured tail. "...That won't fly."

Toothless looked back at Hiccup and make a cooing sound before turning his head up to look at the sky. He looked over to Toothless and stood up. "I'm not giving up bud, we'll get you back in the air, one way or another." Hiccup said, a glint of determination in his eye, he then stormed off towards his car which he had parked off in the ditch by the dirt road they had driven up on. Toothless followed after him as he trudged through the tall grass and Hiccup jumped into the driver's seat and called out. "Come on Toothless." Toothless just sat outside the car staring at him, and Hiccup looked over to his friend. "Right...I guess you won't really fit into the car now that you're big…" Hiccup looked around awkwardly at the empty fields surrounding them. "I guess we have to wait then…"

Hiccup sighed heavily and looked over at the time on the car radio. According to Fishlegs the molecule was supposed to last about an hour, so they would be stuck there for a while. He glanced to the back seat of the car where he had left his work bag and reached back to grab it. From the bag he pulled out his laptop and opened it up. Hiccup checked his email, there were several unread messages, a couple from work, some spam, and a few about news. He clicked on the first email, it was a link to a science news website he had notifications for. The email listed a few of the top stories of the week and a link to the website to read more, the head line at the very top of the page read; Bio-inspired transformable robotic fin in development at Berk U! Click to read more! Hiccup clicked on the link to the article and scanned over it, reading only key words. After getting about halfway through something caught his eye, the words; "...says research associate professor Gobber."

Hiccup looked over to Toothless, who was now curled up and resting a few meters from the car in the tall grass, and a smile crept up onto his face. "I'll get you in the air, bud."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! I'm sorry there hasn't been a lot of Hiccup/Astrid interaction so far, I swear she will be a primary character later on, but right now I really want to develop Hiccup as a superhero before moving on to the primary plot.**

 **Don't forget to leave a review on your way out, thanks again!**


	6. Chapter 6: Fire in His Belly

**A heads up for everyone, I might not be able to post for a little while after this chapter. As of writing this I've been preparing to return home after being away for a number of months and I will probably be super jet-lagged and busy getting back to the swing of things. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 6: Fire in His Belly

Hiccup parked his car in the bustling parking lot and hopped out, he looked around and felt the memories rush back to him. This was the first time he had been back to his old school since graduation and it looked exactly the same as it always had. Granted, it wasn't too long ago that he was going here, stressing out over exams and chatting with friends just like all the students surrounding him but it was still nice coming back.

He walked from the parking lot towards the main research building and walked in, the warmth of the building hitting him in the face as he walked inside. He took the route he always did to Gobber's office, passing by the workshops and taking the short cut through the breakroom. His office door was open as it usually was and Hiccup stepped slightly inside and knocked on the door. Gobber glanced up from his computer screen and immediately stood up upon seeing Hiccup standing in the doorway. "Hiccup!" Both of their faces broke out into grins. "It's about time you came to visit!"

Gobber was a large bulky man, similar to Hiccup's father, with a long blonde moustache and scraggly uneven teeth. And if that wasn't distinct enough, he was also a two-time amputee, missing his left hand and his right foot. He stood out like a sore thumb in the engineering department, heck he stood out like a sore thumb pretty much anywhere he went. He had been like family to Hiccup, not only had he been one of Hiccup's professors during his time at university but he also happened to be best friend's with Hiccup's father, so Gobber had known Hiccup since he was a baby. He had practically raised him, with how busy Hiccup's father always was from work. "Sorry, it's been kind of crazy at the lab lately."

"I heard," He said gesturing towards one of the chairs opposite to his desk. "Sit, sit,"

"I guess it's pretty well known, even dad knew about it,"

Gobber sat down, folding his hands down onto his stomach. "I wouldn't say that, nobody really knows what's going on at the lab, but everyone knows there was a breakthrough. It's quite the topic around here, everyone is dying to know what's going on over there." He leaned forward and grinned. "So…?"

"It's confidential."

He grunted and flopped backwards into his chair. "Well it was worth a try I suppose,"

"...I was surprised to hear that you quit teaching,"

"I wouldn't use the word quit," Gobber said scratching his nose. "I just felt like spending more time researching, I'm still working at the university, so if they ever need me to start teaching again, I'm right here. Anyway, what brings you to my neck of the woods Hiccup? Do you need help with anything?"

"I do, actually," Hiccup replied. "I heard about this robotic limb thing. I read an article about it, ok, well, I skimmed an article about it. I was wondering if I could look at the plans you have, it sounds really interesting,"

Gobber shot Hiccup a quizzical look across the table. "You came all the way over here because you thought something sounded interesting? You sure you're not working on something?"

Hiccup squirmed in his seat a little. "...Sort of,"

"Ooho, interesting," Gobber said smiling. "What are you working on?"

"I can't really talk about it,"

"Does it have to do with your work at the lab?"

Hiccup bit his lip. "...you could say that. Finn doesn't know about it though, it's my own...thing,"

"Well I can't really be giving away the plans to anyone willy nilly you know, this design is patented," Gobber said stroking his moustache. "But I guess if you're just using it for a solo project then I guess I can make an exception. If Finn asks for it though, he need to pay the patent fee,"

Hiccup laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not even going to tell Finn about this,"

"Alright," Gobber said nodding and standing up from his chair. "Follow me then, I'll show you the plans. I'll even show you our prototype, if you'd like,"

Hiccup nodded and smiled. "Yeah, that would be awesome,"

They both walked out of the office and down the hall to one of the various workshops. Gobber grabbed the key car clipped to his chest and used it to unlock the doors, gesturing for Hiccup to enter. It was a extremely nice workshop, even better than the one that Hiccup worked in at the lab. "Wow, you guys must have great funding here,"

"We've gotten better funding in the last few years. It really depends on how good our work is doing," Gobber explained limping slightly as he walked into the lab and sat down on a stool. "You know how it is,"

"That's great,"

"You can use the workshop if you need somewhere to work on your little side project. I'm always here, just give me a call," Gobber offered.

Hiccup shook his head. "No, it's fine, I don't want to bother anyone. And anyway, I can just use the shop at work,"

"It won't be a bother, actually I'd like to see what you're able to make with our plans, you might even bring in some new ideas," Gobber said. "Besides, if you're trying to keep it from Finn, wouldn't it be best not to work on it where he is all the time?"

Hiccup thought for a moment before nodding. "Alright, you've convinced me. Thanks for the help,"

"No problem, always happy to help," Gobber said grinning. "I'll get a copy of the plans for you, do you have a USB or something to put it on?"

"Yes, I do," Hiccup said turning slightly to rummage through his bag. He pulled out a small silver thumb drive and handed it to Gobber. He took it and rolled his stool over to a computer before sticking the thumb drive into one of the USB ports. "So what exactly are they planning on using this robotic fin for?"

"It's actually right up your alley, we're working on creating various aquatic drones for deep-sea exploration," He replied without looking away from the computer screen. "Of course it has the potential for many different uses once completed,"

"Like possibly aerial uses?"

Gobber turned to look at Hiccup as the files copied onto the thumb drive. "I suppose it's a possibility, it's not a fully blown wing or anything. I supposed if you adjusted the structure you might be able to create something with flight capabilities, but that would be much more difficult to achieve. I'm not certain it would even work at all,"

"I'm not trying to create a wing, or anything that actually has the ability to lift something off of the ground," Hiccup said waving his hands in front of himself. "Nothing quite so complicated,"

"So why the interest in aerial uses?"

"I'm looking to create something akin to a...tail fin,"

"A tail fin?"

"Yes, like something that would help steer a flying...object,"

Gobber nodded. "Right, right, that seems doable, I think with the right adjustments our design should be able to do what you want it to do," The computer made a quiet ding sound as the file finished copying and Gobber turned to grab the thumb drive, handing it to Hiccup. "You will show me what you're working on once it's finished right?"

Hiccup took it from him, sticking it back into his bag. "Eventually,"

He chuckled. "Well, it was nice seeing you again Hiccup, I should probably get back to work, but give me a call when you're ready to use the workshop, I'll unlock the door for you,"

"Yeah, I should probably get back, I only have fifteen minutes left of my lunch break," Hiccup said turning to leave, he then stopped at the door to turn back to look at Gobber. "Thanks by the way,"

He smiled. "No problem,"

* * *

Fishlegs walked into the workshop and over to Hiccup's desk where he was sketching out detailed blueprints of a mechanical fin. "What are you working on?"

Hiccup jolted at the sound of Fishlegs' voice and quickly began rolling the blueprints up. "It's nothing, just a prototype for something," He dropped the blueprints into a cardboard tube and shut it. "What's up?"

Fishlegs furrowed his brows. "Did you forget?"

"Forget what?"

"Their going in remember? Today,"

Hiccup groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Ugh, that was today? I've been so busy lately, I totally forgot,"

"Well it's happening in like twenty minutes, everyone's gathering to listen to the radio in the cafeteria, I thought you'd probably want to come listen,"

He nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be there in five, save me a spot okay?"

Fishlegs nodded before leaving, and Hiccup looked down at the blueprint tube sitting beside his desk. He was so close to finishing the plans but no matter how fast he worked, Finn worked five times as fast as he ever could. He grew increasingly concerned for the creatures that lived on the other side of the machine, and what might happen to them if they were caught by Finn and the lab. Hiccup picked up the roll and placed it inside of his filing cabinet, locking it shut. He then got up and walked out of the door and towards the cafeteria. It wasn't far from his workshop just down the hall and around the corner, once inside he saw that nearly everyone in the entire building had gathered around the large radio that connected to the people going to the other side. At the very front of the crowd was Astrid, sitting directly in front of the radio with a anxious look on her face. Hiccup looked around and found Fishlegs sitting off near the back of the right side. He squeezed through the crowd and shuffled over to sit beside Fishlegs.

"So?"

"Soon," He replied in a hushed tone. "Last thing we hear they had sent your drone in, and everything looked good,"

"They didn't mention...any living things?" Hiccup whispered back.

"No, they haven't really been describing much, mostly technical things,"

For what felt like the longest ten minutes of his life, Hiccup sat there waiting for something, anything to happen, any noise to come from the radio, anything. Then, finally there was the sudden sound of static and the radio turned on, at first to the sound of just wind whirling around on the other end, then the familiar sound of Finn's voice. " _We're going in,"_

This caused a burst of murmurs to break out through the room as the tension began to rise. Astrid glared back at the group whispering a angry "Shut up," that made everyone fall silent immediately. There was the sounds of wind still in the background and also the sound of the radio being moved around, then for about five seconds there was complete silence, before the wind came back, even stronger than before. Hiccup could only imagine how loud the wind was on the other end, it must've been deafening.

" _It's rocky here, and there are what appears to be craters filled with water, we're optimistic about finding life here,"_

" _I'm taking a sample,"_

" _Good, and get some rock samples as well,"_ There were some more rustling sounds on the other end, and the faint sounds of water splashing in the distance. " _There has definitely been some kind of creature here, we can see footprints all over the sand,"_

" _What's that?"_

" _Eggs?"_

" _That's amazing, it looks like there are eggs over there,"_

Hiccup gripped the armrest of his chair, starting to feel anxious, he didn't want them to find eggs, what would they do with them if they were able to bring them back? Hiccup wasn't sure he wanted to know. The sounds of rustling and soft grunting could be heard, it was clear they were having difficulty moving around on the terrain. " _I see them, they're just over there,"_

" _Wait, do you hear that?"_

" _Hear what?"_

Everyone in the room leaned forward in anticipation and if not for the sounds coming from the radio it would've been dead silent. For the first few seconds nothing could be heard but the sound of the wind, but then a sort of loud screeching sound cut through and then the sudden rustling sound as they starting running. " _What in Valhalla is that!?"_

" _Don't look back, keep running!"_

" _They're too fast, argh!"_ There was a loud thud as someone fell to the ground.

Astrid suddenly sprung up from her seat and pushed through the crowd of people. "Is it still open? If not, get them to open it right now!" She yelled rushing out the door and down the hall. A few others from the room got up and ran after her. At this point there was so many different sounds on the other end of the radio that it was impossible to understand what exactly was happening.

" _There it is, go, go!"_

" _They're following us!"_

" _Keep going, we can make it!"_

There were the sounds of feet crunching down onto rock, and the heavy breathing as they ran. The wind seemed even louder than before and the occasional shriek of something not human could be heard. Then, for five seconds, there was total silence and then the sounds erupted back into chaos. With loud thumps and bangs and the sound of metal objects crashing to the ground. It was then that the group could hear the same loud banging sounds, this time not just from the radio, but from somewhere in the building. Nearly everyone, including Hiccup, got up and rushed down the hall and started running to the control room. There was a crowd of people standing just outside the doorway, looking inside, shock and amazement covering their faces.

"They shrunk," One person said.

Those words hit Hiccup like a ton of bricks. He knew what that meant, and he didn't want to waste anymore time. He turned on his heel and went back to his workshop, grabbing his blueprints and storming out the door. Hiccup was more determined than ever to prove what Toothless could do, what those creatures could do, and no one was going to stop him.

Nobody who went through the machine was injured and it was only a few days later that word got out in the lab what had been found. There were four different creatures, all shared similarities but were distinctly different; that was the most information most people got about it. Finn had dubbed them "Dragons", a term that had caught on around the lab. It seemed to stick since most people had no idea what the creatures were like and felt that the mysterious nature of dragons fit quite well. They had tried to chase down Finn and his crew, along with a large number of other dragons, but only four made it through the machine before they closed it. It only took about two minutes after entering our world before they shrunk down to their tiny sizes, making them extremely easy to capture and confine.

This motivated Hiccup more than ever and he started spending more and more time at the university workshop working on Toothless's tail. In turn this caused him to spend less and less time resting like he probably should've been doing.

"Are you okay Hiccup?" He looked up from the workbench to find Gobber standing over him, brows furrowed in concern. "You've been working a little too much lately, maybe you should take a break. I mean, this is the third one you've made this week,"

Hiccup shook his head. "I need to get this done,"

"Is there a reason why you're in such a rush?"

"...Not really,"

"You're a terrible liar," Hiccup didn't reply, and Gobber sighed. "Well at least let me help you finish. I can get the welding done for you while you work on the webbing," Hiccup sighed. "I've seen you do this plenty of times already, I don't think I'm going to learn anything new about your secret project that I don't already know,"

"Fine," Hiccup said reluctantly. "You're better at welding than me anyways,"

"Not going to argue with that," Gobber chuckled, before walking off towards the welding station. "Where are you going to test out these things anyway?"

* * *

Hiccup slammed the car door shut and hiked out through the tall grass towards the middle of the field while carrying a large black bag. Toothless sat on his shoulder as usual, staring out at the open sky. "Home again, home again," He said dryly as he made it into the centre. "Fifth time's the charm, am I right?"

He lowered toothless to the ground and pulled out the small baggie of molecule pills, taking one out and tossing it to Toothless, who easily caught it in his mouth. At this point the growing process wasn't exciting to Hiccup anymore, so he stood calmly looking at his phone as Toothless grew to his full size. He then dropped the large bag onto the ground and zipped it open, revealing the newest model of Toothless' tail. Hiccup carefully pulled the tail out of the bag and carried it over to the back end of Toothless and strapped it onto his tail.

"Alright buddy," Hiccup said patting Toothless on the tail and pulling out the controller for the fin. "Let's try this again,"

Toothless leapt into the air and began to take flight. Hiccup quickly used the controller to help steer as Toothless flew, but his reactions just weren't fast enough to compare with Toothless and the controller had a slight time delay. It only took about thirty seconds for the flight to go wrong and Toothless came crashing back down onto the ground.

Hiccup rushed over to his side and crouched down beside him. "You alright bud?"

Toothless looked more frustrated than anything else, and in his anger he opened his mouth, creating a screeching sound that started quiet and slowly grew louder, and a blue glow began to appear from his throat. Shocked, Hiccup stumbled backwards and the blue light suddenly shot out of Toothless' mouth with a loud bang, completely disintegrating the grass where light had hit. Hiccup moved and touched the spot only to sharply recoil his hand, the spot was scalding hot. He started wide-eyed at his friend. "When did you learn to do that?!" Toothless just grunted, stood up and walked off towards the car. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going?"

 **Thanks for reading! Please make sure to leave a review, I love reading your feedback**


	7. Chapter 7: The Edge

**I had a sudden burst of inspiration and was able to finish this chapter, I was surprised that I had the energy, but I'm glad I was able to get this done for you guys, so I hope you enjoy.**

Chapter 7: The Edge

"Where have you been lately?" Fishlegs asked as he walked into my office, a cup of coffee in each hand. "Lately you've been running around like chicken with it's head cut off," He placed on of the mugs down on my desk beside me.

"Thanks," I muttered. "I've been working on our little side project, speaking of which, I might need more of those pills soon,"

He stared at me and furrowed his eyebrows. "What? Already? There were like twenty in that bag I gave you, how often have you been using them?"

"I've been doing what you told me I should be doing," Hiccup replied grouchily. "I've been trying to train Toothless properly, so I can prove that he's intelligent, don't you remember?"

"Yeah, but not while he's giant. We don't know what he can do in that form, so we should be careful about letting him stay that way too often," Fishlegs said taking a sip from his coffee.

Hiccup hiked himself up higher in his seat. "Yeah, you know, speaking of not knowing what he can do, he shot some hot blue fireball out of his mouth the other day, do have any idea how he would be able to do that?"

Fishlegs choked on his coffee, and quickly wiped his mouth. "What? A blue fireball? Are you serious?"

"I'm completely serious, and it seemed like it was a totally normal occurrence to him," He said squinting his eyes in contemplation. "It was super hot too, like it really burnt up the area where it landed, I touched the spot with my hand and nearly burned my fingertips off,"

"It didn't cause a fire?"

"What?"

"It didn't cause a fire?" Fishlegs repeated.

"Why would it cause a fire?"

He narrowed his eyes at Hiccup. "Because...you were...in your house...right?" Silence. "You didn't. For the love of Thor, please tell me you didn't,"

"Well…"

"Hiccup!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air. "You can't take him outside, he's not a dog, you can control him if he decides to just run off somewhere. What if he escapes or something? He could've hurt someone, we don't even know what he's capable of!"

"He wouldn't run off,"  
"You can't know that,"

"I can, actually," Hiccup retorted, crossing his arms and leaning back into his chair. "Since I've taken him outside a bunch of times and not once has he ever tried to escape,"

Fishlegs started at Hiccup. "A bunch?"

"Relax, I told you he never tried to run right? What are you so afraid of?"

He shook his head. "I don't like this Hiccup, I really don't like it," Fishlegs started pacing back and forth across the room. "What if someone sees him? How are we going to explain this? And if he's starting to get more powers maybe you're giving him too many pills, what if he keeps getting stronger? What if he gets too strong to handle?"

Hiccup stood up and put his hands up in a calming motion. "Take a breath for a moment, you're working yourself up," He said. "No one is going to see him alright, I drove out of the city into the middle of nowhere, that's the only place I give him the pills, I promise. As for controlling him, it's not a problem, it doesn't matter how powerful he gets, Toothless trusts me, and he's not a monster, he doesn't want to hurt people,"

"What about the lab?"

Hiccup cocked his eyebrow. "What about the lab?"

"They need to know what those things can do, they have four of them in captivity," Fishlegs explained. "They need to know that these things can grow in size and shoot blue fire out of their mouths. It's not safe to have them here. Those creatures are way too dangerous, plus their going back in there soon, how powerful are the dragons on the other side?"

"You said that they knew what they were getting themselves into, what happened to that?" Hiccup asked, starting to get frustrated. "Besides, they're not dangerous, they're trainable, we know this already. Toothless wouldn't hurt anyone unless I told him to,"

"Maybe that's a bad thing. What if they fall into the wrong hands?"

"Nobody outside of this lab even knows that they exist," He replied calmly. "So I wouldn't worry about-" There was a loud clatter as a mop hit the ground. Hiccup and Fishlegs both turned to see Mildew pushing his mop bucket past the doorway, he bent down slowly to pick up the mop, not even turning to look at them. They both moved closer to the doorway to watch him slowly move down the hall with his mop and bucket. "I didn't even notice he was there,"

"How long do you think he was mopping here?" Fishlegs asked.

Hiccup looked around at the floor, which had been very sloppily mopped up, there was still dirt left at the edges of the walls. "Judging by the floor, not long,"

"That guy seriously gives me the creeps,"

"Do you think he heard what we were talking about?" Hiccup asked, turning back to look at his friend. "I mean, the stuff we were saying, do you think he understood it?"

"I don't know, probably not, his hearing is terrible,"

"It is?"

"That's what I heard, everyone says he's as deaf as a doorpost. It makes sense, he never replies to anything I say," Fishlegs explained rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't think he even understands what's going on at the lab anyway,"

"Yeah, you're probably right," Hiccup said before glancing down at his watch. "I gotta get going, I have some work to do, can you please make some more of those pills when you have the chance? Don't worry about Toothless, I can handle him just fine, even when he's big,"

Fishlegs sighed. "Fine. Just be careful, and only give them to him in secluded areas,"

Hiccup nodded as he gathered up his stuff and shoved it into his bag. "Of course." He then pulled his bag over his shoulder and waved to Fishlegs as he exited the room "I'll see you tomorrow, bye,"

"Bye,"

He quickly walked to the elevators, made it down to the front lobby and drove straight to the university. He needed to do more work on it, even after so many tries he just couldn't get it working properly and time was ticking. The university was relatively quiet as it usually was by the time he arrived to work on the tail fin. Hiccup parked his car pulled the fin out of the trunk of his car, walked into the building and headed towards Gobber's office. He just peered inside and knocked on the wall to get his attention. Gobber looked up and silently nodded, before pulling himself out of his chair with a grunt. "You're really spending a lot of time on this project,"

"Yeah,"

"How's it going, if you don't mind me asking," Gobber asked as he unlocked the door the stepped inside. He looked at Hiccup's expression. "Nevermind, I can tell just by looking. You know, if you're struggling maybe I can help you out, give you some advice,"

"It's just the controls," Hiccup explain sighing. "They're not responsive enough, so it keeps crashing. Plus I can't seem to steer it properly, I'm used to ground drones, flying is much more difficult than this,"

"Hmm," Gobber hummed, rubbing his chin in contemplation. "You could always buy a better receiver, but that'll be expensive, if the controller was wired directly to the fin it would be much more responsive but obviously you can't do that, unless you're planning on riding it," He said chuckling. "As for the steering it might be better if you put a camera on the drone, that way you can have a better view of where it's going, rather than having to view from below,"

"Right, I see what you're saying," Hiccup replied nodding.

"I have a old camera you can attach if you want,"

He thought for a moment. "That's okay, I don't think I'm going to need one, I think I have a better solution,"

"Alright then, I hope I was able to help," Gobber said moving to exit the room.

Hiccup turned to look at Gobber. "By the way, do you know any good suppliers? I need more materials that I can't seem to find. Preferably someone on the cheap end."

Gobber nodded, pulling a piece of scrap paper and a pen from his breast pocket. "I do have a supplier, but if you're looking for someone a little cheaper I recommend this place," He hunched over the table and began scribbling something onto the paper. "It's a scrap yard, so it'll take a little elbow grease to find what you're looking for, but there's plenty to find over there and they've got the best prices around. It's pretty close by, and they might even give you a discount, since they know you," He handed Hiccup the paper, now with a address and phone number scrawled across it.

Hiccup took it. "I know them?"

"Apparently you went to school together, their parents were the ones who ran it, but last I heard they took over the business a few years back,"

"They went to Berk University and now they're working in a scrap yard?" He asked, skeptical.

Gobber shook his head. "No, no, not university, you went to high school with them,"

Hiccup's face dropped. "Do you remember me in high school? I wasn't exactly Mr. Popularity, they're probably just going to remember me as the loser or the class screw-up,"

"Don't worry," Gobber said, giving Hiccup a slap on the back. "That's all in the past now, you were just kids back then I'm sure they're much more mature than when they were in high school. One day you'll laugh about all the stuff that happened in the past, trust me,"

* * *

Hiccup drove up to the entrance, he looked down at the address that Gobber had given him and it seemed like everything matched up. Despite being in the city, the scrap yard was in a pretty secluded place, shrouded by tall evergreen trees and a tall barbed-wire fence. In was located in the less than desireable part of town so many of the houses in the area were abandoned or rundown. The scrap yard, though not the cleanest looking, appeared to be in good condition. There was a large electric gate, large enough for cars to come in and out, with a big metal arch over top of it, with the name of the scrap yard displayed in stylish metal letters; The Edge. Hiccup drove to the intercom and pressed the large red button underneath the speaker, there was a crackling sound before a raspy female voice came on the other end.

" _Yeah?"_

"Uh...I'm a customer? This place was recommended to me by Gobber," Hiccup swallowed nervously. "Gobber from the university?"

" _Okay, whatever,"_ There was a loud buzz noise as the gate unlocked and the metal doors slowly slid out of the way allowing Hiccup to enter.

He drove into the scrap yard slowly and cautiously, the inside was even bigger than it looked like from outside. The lot was huge, and the vast majority of land was covered in enormous heaps of cars, old electronics, and other garbage. There was one small building close to the entrance, and a much larger warehouse all the way at the back of the yard. In Front of the smaller building was a small empty area with various tire tracks that looked like it was used as a small parking area, so Hiccup parked his car and hopped out. He looked around to see if he could find anyone, but the yard was desolate and quiet, from inside the small building he could hear the faint sound of a tv, so Hiccup walked up the steps onto the porch and knocked on the door.

"It's unlocked," A voice said from inside.

He opened the door and walked in, inside was a small office, it had a little sitting room decked out with furniture that Hiccup guessed was older than he was and the walls were all covered in tacky wood paneling. On the other side of the room was a front desk type area, at the desk was a man and a woman, similar in age to Hiccup sitting each on a desk chair watching tv on a laptop. The man was thin and gangly with a long face, as was the woman, they both had long blonde hair, the man's hair had been done into dreadlocks while the woman had hers in a series of messy tangled braids. They both look quite similar and it was clear that they were siblings, Hiccup recognized them immediately.

He walked over to the desk and looked at them, neither one even acknowledged his presence and just continued watching whatever was on the laptop. "Hi, I'm here to buy some stuff from the scrap yard...did I come at a bad time?"

"Nah dude, go ahead, just bring whatever you find back here," The male twin mumbled without breaking away from the laptop screen. "And be out by five, we close at five,"

Hiccup glanced down at his watch. "It's six thirty,"

"Five in the morning," The woman corrected. "Oh and you can sign in over there if you want," She said gesturing towards a small table behind him with a guest book on it, as she spoke she glanced ever so slightly up at Hiccup. "...Wait...I know you,"

The man looked up. "Oh, you're totally right, it's..it's…" He looked upwards in thought, snapping his fingers as he tried to remember. "...Hungry? Hulking? Heavy?"

Hiccup let out a long sigh. "It's Hiccup,"

The woman started to break out into laughter. "Oh right! You were the one who always hung out that fat kid. Do you remember the time he blew up half of the school's science fair, man that was funny," She asked turning to her brother.

"What about that other time when he caught the school principal in his home-made skunk trap, that was even better!" The man exclaimed slapping his knee. "Headmaster Heyral had to be taken to the hospital to get it off!"

"Listen, I'm just here to buy some stuff okay?" Hiccup said, trying to interject with no avail.

They continued, still laughing. "And remember on the first day of third grade? He wouldn't stop crying for his _mom_ , what a baby!"

Hiccup's scowl deepened and he quickly turned and stormed out of the room, breathing heavily and angrily. He walked back to his car and swung the door open, before pausing, he was angry and he wanted nothing more than to just leave and never come back, but he needed parts, for Toothless. The two siblings inside were Ruffnut, the woman, and Tuffnut, the man. They were twins and had been going to the same school as Hiccup from kindergarten until the end of grade twelve, and he never thought he'd ever have to see them again. They had always teased Hiccup, mostly out of immaturity, immaturity they clearly had not grown out of. One thing was for certain, Gobber was wrong, the twins were still just as callous and childish as they were back in grade school. Still, he needed those parts, and he could keep buying everything at full retail price, not at the rate he was going at.

The twins both walked out of the building and onto the porch to see where Hiccup had gone. "Hey, don't take it too seriously, we were just reminiscing, we can show you around if you want," Ruffnut called out. "You wanted to look for something right?"

Hiccup took in a deep breath before climbing back out, shutting the car door, and walking back to the building. "Yeah, I need some electronic parts."

"Cool, we have a pile of electronic shit in the back," Tuffnut said pointing backwards with his thumb. "We'll take you there,"

The twins led Hiccup around the building and deeper into the scrap yard, despite how messy it seemed upon first glance each pile of junk was it's own. Four piles for broken cars, one pile for old furniture, one pile for bicycles, it was surprisingly organized. "This place is very well secured, are you worried about thieves or something?"

"Nah," Ruffnut replied. "Our great uncle Magmar founded this place so that he could run an illegal boar fighting ring, so he wanted to make sure nobody could sneak in and find out,"

"Nobody's been doing boar fighting for years though, but the boar pitt is still by the old tires if you want to see it," Tuffnut said, finishing for his sister.

"I'll pass,"

It only took little more walking until they had reached the area with all the electronic items. There was a lot of stuff, endless piles and piles of microwaves, computers, and washing machines as far as the eye could see. "This is it," Ruffnut said. "Just bring what you find back to the main office and we'll ring you up,"

Hiccup nodded and the twins began walking back. "Wait!" Hiccup called out, and they both turned to look back at him. "You wouldn't happen to have any saddles anywhere would you?"

They both exchanged glances before looking back towards Hiccup. "Saddles? Like for a horse?"

"Something like that,"

"I'm not sure about saddles," Tuffnut said looking around the scrap yard. "But we do have a pile of leather stuff, it's mostly leather ripped out of old cars but If we have any it'll be over there. It's over there near the broken motorcycles," He said pointing near the front of the yard.

"Okay, thanks," Hiccup replied nodding and turning back to the scrap pile. The twins walked back to the main building, chatting with one another as they walked while he got to work. He dug through mountains of broken materials doing his best to find salvageable parts with what little sunlight there was left, which was actually pretty easy since there was such an abundance of everything. Hiccup gathered all of his materials and put them into a cardboard box he found in the junkyard, then began walking back toward the main building to pay for them. On the way back he walked to the area where the discarded motorcycles were and found the pile of leather objects.

A lot of it was just large scrap pieces of damaged leather, most likely from car seats, there were also plenty of small leather items like shoes, bags, and clothing. Finally near the bottom of the pile Hiccup found a large worn down saddle made from brown leather. He pulled it out of the pile and swung it over his shoulder, before leaving he grabbed a few scrap pieces of leather, the thickest and most sturdy he could find for use in adjusting the saddle if need be. Then he began walking back to the building. As he walked, slowly and awkwardly because of how much he was carrying, he tripped and fell over something on the ground. His box fell and the contents dumped out. "Great," Hiccup muttered sarcastically. "Just what I needed," He moved to get up and as he did he looked back to see what had tripped him, it was a plain black motorcycle helmet that had rolled out of the pile of motorcycles. Hiccup gathered all of his items back into his box and before leaving he went to kick the helmet out of frustration but stopped himself, and stared at it, before adding it to his box and returning to the main building.

Hiccup dropped the box and saddle down onto the front desk with a loud slam, both Ruffnut and Tuffnut stood up to look over the items. They shuffled through the box taking note of all the items and writing them down onto a piece of paper. "A motorcycle helmet and a saddle?" Ruffnut asked, looking up at Hiccup as she punched some numbers into the cash register. "You wouldn't rather have a riding helmet?"

He shook his head in response. "No, I need something with a little more protection,"

"Planning on an exciting weekend I see," She responded.

Hiccup shrugged. "You could say that,"

"Nice," Tuffnut said nodding and smiling. "Well, have a good time,"

"Thanks,"

"Cash or credit?"

"...Cash,"

Now with all the parts and equipment he needed, Hiccup began working on his newest plan, it might've seemed crazy to others, but this whole situation was crazy. He starting working on the saddle, tailoring it to fit Toothless and fitting the wiring for the fin's controls into it. Hiccup worked faster than he had ever worked, fixing everything up in record time. Next thing he knew he was already driving back out to the field to test his newest creation. The weather was already starting to warm up a little and the grass in the field had started to slowly turn from a dull yellow-brown colour to a nice spring green.

"It's almost spring," Hiccup commented as he got out of his car, pulling out yet another large bag from the trunk and walking out into the middle of the field. "You ready bud?" Toothless made a quiet cooing sound and he jumped off of Hiccup's shoulder. "Looks like you're getting stronger everyday, it must be the pills," He said pulling out the baggie from his pocket, taking one out and tossing it over to Toothless.

As Toothless grew to his full size, Hiccup opened up the large bag and began taking out all of the equipment inside. He put on a jacket and gloves before picking up the saddle and strapping it onto Toothless who wiggled around, getting the feel of it. Hiccup then grabbed the fin and attached it to his tail, bringing the wires up and connecting them to the controls on the saddle. He looked up and down at his handy-work and smiled. "Not too shabby if I do say so myself," Hiccup grabbed the motorcycle helmet he had bought from the junkyard, shoved it onto his head, and climbed onto Toothless, a little awkwardly as it was his first time. "Okay, just try to take it slowly bud,"

With that, Toothless leapt into the air, flapping his enormous black wings furiously to get higher into the air. Hiccup reacted quickly, using the controls which he had wired into one of the stirrups of the saddle. He moved with Toothless, trying to estimate where he would move and how he would move there. It worked quite well for about a five minutes, as they flew over the trees and fields, looking over the gorgeous scenery and watching Berk from far in the distance. This lasted until Toothless tried going too high too fast, causing Hiccup to slip slightly from his seat and lose control of the mechanical fin. Before falling away from Toothless completely, Hiccup was able to grab onto the saddle, but this didn't stop Toothless from falling due to his tail fin not being under control. There was a panic and a struggle as they quickly fell from the sky, at the very last second Hiccup managed to climb back into the saddle and quickly maneuver upwards, narrowly avoiding the ground. They swerved around close to the ground, trying to get back in control, before crashing in a wheat field.

The flight lasted longer than any of their previous flights, which wasn't saying much, but still felt like a major victory. It was also quite the victory considering neither one of them died and only left the crash with a few bruises. "I think this is your tail, bud. Could use a few small adjustments," Hiccup said looking over the saddle and fin. "Maybe some more safety features, but all in all, that want quite well wouldn't you say?" Toothless responded by giving Hiccup a big lick with his giant tongue, coating him in saliva. "Argh!"

* * *

"...And you've seen them?"

"No," Mildew replied. "But I'm sure they're there, everyone talks about them,"

"How many?"

"Four, but I hear there are even more through the machine they built. Just on their first trip they came across a flock of them, so there could be hundreds, even thousands hidden on the other side," Mildew scooched closer. "Right now they don't know how to use them at their full power, but I learned how, they could be very dangerous though,"

A devious smile crept across his face. "Dangerous is exactly what I want,"

 **Thanks for reading, I really hope you liked it and please, please, please leave a review with your thoughts about the chapter, good or bad I love to hear what you guys think.**


	8. Chapter 8: Fight and Flight

**Blurrg, I really should be working on my other fic but I just keep getting bursts of inspiration for this one. Well here is where the action really starts to pick up so I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 8: Fight and Flight

There was a big stupid grin on his face, and nothing could wipe it off. Though maybe to some, their flight may have been seen as a failure, after so many tries and so many fins, to Hiccup this had been a great victory. So as he sat at his desk, working on adding improvements to the drone for the lab, Hiccup continued grinning to himself, something that earned him more than a few side glances from his coworkers.

"Why are you so happy?" Fishlegs asked, rather bluntly, only a few moments after entering the workshop to see Hiccup. "You know they're going back in today right?"

"I'm just in a good mood, is it so strange for me to be in a good mood?"

Fishlegs just nodded and said; "Yeah, kinda, I've never known you to be very optimistic,"

The both watched as the last few people walked out of the workshop for lunch. "...I made some great progress with Toothless the other day, I think we're close to going public," Hiccup explained. "By the way, did you get more of those molecule pills for me?"

"Progress? What Progress?"

"...Just, progress, it's not important for you to know." He replied shrugging, trying to act nonchalant, and failing.

Fishlegs stared at Hiccup, clearly uneasy. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

"Don't worry about it,"

"Surprisingly, saying that doesn't make me worry any less, if anything, it makes me worry more,"

Hiccup sighed. "It's really not much, I told you a few weeks ago about how his tail fin was injured," He explained without looking towards Fishlegs. "Well I was able to work around the injury, that's all. Toothless is stronger than ever, and you should see what he's capable of,"

"His fin?" Fishlegs asked. "What does he need his fin for?" Hiccup didn't say anything. "Please tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing," Hiccup looked away and stared down at his keyboard. "Hiccup! Flying? Someone will see him!"

"No one will see him, we're out in the fields," He replied. "Besides, we won't have to worry about that much longer, we just need to get someone from the press on our side, but we need someone damn convincing,"

Fishlegs sighed heavily and fell into the seat beside Hiccup. "Did you have someone in mind?"

"Well…" Hiccup said trailing off.

"No."

"She's one of the best journalist in Berk, something like this is right up her alley,"

"She's also Finn's niece, you don't think she'll tell him right away what we're up to?" Hiccup shrugged. "She will. She loves her uncle, and Finn loves his work. You'd be asking her to take that away from him. There's no way she'd do it,"

Hiccup nodded with a soft sigh. "Yeah...yeah, you're right, but she's the only journalist we know,"

"I'll work on finding someone, there are plenty of other journalists in Berk, I'm sure we can find someone to help us," Fishlegs said as he rummaged through his pockets and pulled out another small baggie of pills and held it forward. "And I did make some," Hiccup moved to take the pills and Fishlegs pulled it back slightly. "Just promise me you won't give him too many more, at least not until we get this journalist stuff dealt with,"

"Alright," Hiccup said nodding, before taking the baggie and looking at it, "You know we should probably give the molecule a name, so we don't have to keep calling it 'the molecule' all the time,"

"How about, bigium? Ooh, or maybe enlargium?"

Hiccup chuckled. "It's a molecule, not an element you know,"

"Yeah but molecule names never sound as cool as elements do," He replied shrugging. "Plus they're always so long,"

"Fair enough," Hiccup said. "I guess we can call it enlargium for now, we should probably give it a more official name when this all goes public,"

"Yeah, probably," Fishlegs nodded, chuckling. "Anyway, you want to go for lunch?"

He looked down at his watch. "I don't think I can, I've got to make a quick trip before lunch ends,"

"Where are you going?"

"A junk yard, I need some more parts..." Hiccup paused. "...for Toothless' fin,"

"Not this again," Fishlegs groaned.

Hiccup began throwing things into his bag. "The better Toothless can fly by the time we get a journalist on this, the better chance we have," He stood up, throwing his bag over his shoulder. "Just trust me okay?"

"Do I have any choice?"

He just smiled and waved goodbye as he left the room. The fin was finally working properly, but there were still a few alterations that needed to be made to improve the steering and most of all, a few extra safety features wouldn't hurt. Hiccup returned to The Edge, and slowly drove back up to the intercom, pressing the buzzer. There was no response at first, and it took a few more presses until finally there was an answer.

" _...Yeah?_ " A groggy male voice could be heard from the other end.

"Tuffnut? It's me, Hiccup. I need some more parts, do you mind if I come in?"

There was a long pause. " _Sure, I guess so,"_ The sound of the gate unlocking turned Hiccup's attention away from the intercom and he slowly moved into the junk yard as the gate slid open. Toothless climbed up onto the dash of the car and Hiccup quickly pushed him back down onto the passenger's seat. Once inside, he climbed out of his car and looked around the yard, there was no sign of anyone and even the building had no lights or sound coming from it. It didn't matter though, he just needed a few simple parts and he could just slip them the money under the door. Toothless hopped up onto his shoulder and the two of them walked off towards where the pile of broken electronics were kept. "It's a good thing this place is always so deserted," Hiccup said as he looked to Toothless. "I could probably do some of the alterations here rather than going all the way to the university,"

Hiccup glanced towards the ground and noticed a red bungee cord laying in the dirt and bent over to pick it up. He pulled it with both hands to test its elasticity. "Pretty good, we could probably use this for a safety harness," He looked over at Toothless. "What do you think?"

Toothless cooed, and Hiccup nodded. "I like the colour too," He stuffed the bungee cord in his back pocket and continued forward until he reached the electronics pile. The pile seemed even larger than last time, and Hiccup immediately began digging through all the parts with the assistance of Toothless. After a while of searching Hiccup checked his watch and quietly cursed under his breath. "Crap, Finn is going to kill me if I'm late," He made his way back to the bottom of the pile and gathered up the few parts that he had found into a box before speed walking back to the front gate. Toothless ran after him and climbed up his leg and onto the top of his head.

As Hiccup continued to his car, his phone started buzzing in his pocket. "Shit," He muttered, fumbling with the box so he could pull his phone out. "I know I'm late Fishlegs," Hiccup mumbled as he looked at the caller ID and quickly rejected the call. As he made it back to his car, his phone began buzzing in his pocket again. Hiccup grunted in annoyance, answering the phone and holding it to his ear with his shoulder as he dumped the box into the back seat of his car. "I know, I know I'm late, I'm coming back as fast as I can,"

" _Don't come back!"_ Fishlegs yelled, sounding even more distressed than he usually sounded.

Hiccup took the phone into his hand and stood up straight. "Fishlegs? What's wrong?" Yelling and loud crashes could be heard in the background of the call. "What's going on over there?"

" _Hiccup, don't come back, there are people here,"_

"People? What people?" He asked, pressing a hand to his other ear in an attempt to hear him better. "What's all that noise?"

" _I didn't get a good look at them, they're...they're trashing the place, I think they're looking for Finn…"_ Fishlegs explained through heavy nervous gasps. " _They're taking stuff, lots of stuff, and they're threatening people…"_

"Are you okay? Where are you?"

" _They drove a bulldozer through the front lobby to get in here, it's a frenzy right now...they're taking all the files...all of them,"_

"Fishlegs, calm down for a second, you're talking too fast," Hiccup said nervously clutching his phone with both hands. "Where are you? Are you hiding right now?"

Fishlegs took in a long breath. " _I'm in the janitor's closet, I've locked the door, nobody has tried to get in yet...they keep yelling for Finn, but he was in the machine,"_

"Don't worry about Finn right now, did you call the police already?"

" _Yes,"_

"Okay good, you should just stay there until the police arrive,"

" _Don't touch me!"_ The distant sound of a woman screaming could be heard over the phone. " _Get your hands off of me!"_

Hiccup could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "What was that?"

" _I think they're taking her,"_

"Taking who?"

" _I can't see her, I can only hear them from under the door,"_

"Taking who?" He repeated louder.

" _Taking Astrid,"_

He took in a sharp breath. "Stay where you are and keep the door locked, I'm coming over,"

" _Hiccup no-"_ He hung up before Fishlegs could finish what he was saying and whipped open the door to the driver's seat, but he paused for a moment, one leg in the car.

Hiccup looked over to the trunk of the car, where Toothless was sitting, and he slammed the car door shut and moved towards the trunk, opening it and pulling out Toothless' fin as Toothless jumped onto the ground. It would take at least fifteen minutes to get all the way back to the lab by car, longer if the traffic was bad, but on Toothless he could get there in under five. Hiccup pulled out the pills, or the Enlargium as they has decided to call it and threw Toothless one of the tablets. Then, as Toothless began growing, Hiccup took off his white lab coat, throwing it into the back of his car, and pulled on his leather jacket, gloves, and helmet. Once Toothless was at full size, he worked quickly to attach the fin to him, finishing in record time. Hiccup climbed onto Toothless' back and right before they took off, he pulled the bungee cord from his back pocket, attaching one end to the saddle and one end to his belt. Toothless then leapt into the air, even higher than the last time they flew, and soared through the air. It might've been the added experience, it might've been the adrenaline, or it might've been both, but whatever it was, Hiccup was able to steer Toothless better than he ever had before.

They flew high over the streets and in between the buildings until finally making it to the block where the lab was located. From above Hiccup and Toothless could see the chaos that had erupted at the lab. There was a large bulldozer crashed into the front of the building and smashed concrete and debris was scattered all over the parking lot. People stood screaming for help from atop the roof and from the windows of the building, and from one of the windows emerged a large trail of dark grey smoke.

"Let go of me!" Astrid screamed from below, as two men, one holding her feet and one holding her shoulders, carried her out of the building and towards a small cluster of black trucks.

The men struggled to carry her as she wriggled and failed her limbs in an attempt to break free. "Hold her feet still already, we need to leave, the police will be here any minute,"

"You want to try holding her feet? Bitch broke my fucking nose," He retorted, a trail of blood running down his chin. "Because I'd love to see-" Before he could finish, Astrid was able to pull one of her legs free in order to kick him in the neck, knocking him over. Astrid fell to the ground, quickly jumping to her feet and beginning to run off towards the building.

"You idiot! Grab her!" A man yelled from one of the cars. They followed after her, and along with two additional men from inside the building, they were able to surround her. "Just tell us where he is and we'll leave you alone," One man said calmly, knees bent and hands out in a readied position.

"Go fuck yourself!" She yelled back.

"Get her," They all moved in to grab her when suddenly a loud, ear-piercing screech could be heard and the ground was hit with a giant blast of blue fire, creating a large smoking crater in the asphalt. The impact was such a shock it caused everyone to fall to the ground and look to the sky for whatever the fire came from. Then, Toothless landed with a loud thud, in the middle of the four men, with Astrid safely hidden beneath his belly, she lay stunned on the ground looking up at the enormous creature. The four men wasted no time, and immediately scrambled to their feet and rushed to their trucks, speeding off down the street.

Hiccup unlatched the bungee cord, dismounted from Toothless and crouched down to see if Astrid was okay. "Are you alright?" He asked, the motorcycle helmet muffling his voice. She just stared at him in disbelief. "Are you hurt?"

"Who are you?" Astrid asked staring at him, and for a moment Hiccup was confused, and then he remembered that the helmet had a dark tint that made it impossible for anyone to see his face. "What is... _that_?" She asked, this time glancing up at Toothless.

The sound of police sirens could be heard approaching from in the distance. Hiccup turned to look and he could see the faint blue and red lights flashing from down the busy streets, he turned back to look at Astrid, who was still staring up at Toothless in shock. "He's good, remember that,"

"What?" Hiccup wasted no time and climbed back onto Toothless, reading to take off again. "Wait! Who are you?" Astrid called out, standing up.

He paused for a moment. "Just an acquaintance," Hiccup replied before Toothless jumped back into the air and flew off in the distance, disappearing into the city scape. The police cars raced into the parking lot of the lab, dodging in between the rubble and screeching to a halt. The officers all jumped out and immediately looked to the sky, but Hiccup and Toothless were already gone.

Some of the people from inside of the building began filing out, looking around at the sky as well, and a few of them rushed over to see if Astrid was alright. "What was that? Did it hurt you?" One person asked her.

"No...he didn't," Astrid replied, still looking in the direction that they had flown off to. She looked over to them as they gathered in the parking lot. "Where's my uncle? Did he get out?"

"I don't know, I didn't see him,"

"It looked like one of _those things_ ," Someone whispered.

Another person shushed them. "We're not supposed to talk about that,"

"Seriously? You think that matters anymore? Look at what just happened, what the fuck do you think they were after?" A third person interjected angrily.

The police officers began spreading out, checking people for injuries and securing the area, while another group of officers entered the building. Astrid looked over at the officer in charge and quickly walked over to him. "Astrid," He said as he saw her. "It's alright now, we're here to protect you,"

She gave him a hard whack on the shoulder. "Protect nothing, how much longer were you planning on taking? Your response time is terrible,"

"Hey! I could charge you with assaulting a officer you know," He said, rubbing his shoulder.

"Where's your father?"

"What?" He asked giving her a confused look.

Astrid glared daggers at him, making him more than a little anxious. "Where's your father Snotlout," She asked again, this time in a poisonous tone.

Snotlout, much like Hiccup and Fishlegs, had gone to the same school as Astrid from kindergarten all the way to the end of highschool. However, unlike Hiccup and Fishlegs, Snotlout was popular back in their school days. For Hiccup and Fishlegs Snotlout was a tormentor, but for Astrid he was just a nuisance. Snotlout had retained his bulky physique and straight black hair but had grown little in the height department since highschool, leaving him a good few inches shorter than most, though this never seemed to phase him much.

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Where do you think? He's back at headquarters, where he always is,"

"Get your father on the phone, he needs to know what's going on here,"

"I'm perfectly capable of dealing with this situation, there's no need to bother my dad with this,"

Astrid narrowed her eyes at him. "Do have any idea what just happened here?" Snotlout just stared at her not sure what to say. "The blueprints, equipment, findings, any one of those has the potential of being extremely dangerous if left in the wrong hands, and you just let all three get stolen by a group of organized criminals. So you better call your father right now, because he's going to have a very, _very_ big problem on his hands,"

"Alright, alright," Snotlout relented, holding both his palms up in the air in a defensive position. "I'll call him," He ducked back into his police cruiser and picked up the radio.

Two officers walked over to Snotlout. "We've evacuated everyone from the building," One of them reported.

"Did you find my uncle?" Astrid asked.

They glanced at one another anxiously. "No, we didn't see him anywhere in the building, where was the last place you saw him?"

* * *

Toothless swooped down and landed somewhere near the back of the junkyard. Hiccup detached the bungee cord, removed his helmet, and dismounted, stumbling a little as he returned to his feet. His legs were quite shaky, he couldn't believe what he had done, he went out into public, he let Toothless go out into public. Hundreds of people, probably more, had seen Toothless at full size and flying. The cops had not followed him though, and nobody seemed to recognize him, even Astrid, who had seen him up close, didn't seem to recognise that it was him. He let out a small sigh of relief, maybe it wouldn't be a problem after all.

"Good job today, bud," Hiccup said patting Toothless on the side, Toothless made a happy warble sound in response. "Now let's find our way back to the gate," He said beginning to walk forward through the scrap piles, Toothless following after him. Hiccup tucked his helmet under his arm and wrapped up the bungee cord, returning it to his back pocket. "We might need to add some storage compartments onto your saddle," He said glancing back at Toothless and the saddle which was still strapped onto his back. When turned back he noticed a large caged pit in the distance that had been dug out from the dirt. Hiccup and Toothless both approached the pit, which had a complex series of poles and chains that covered the top of the pit like a cage, and looked down into it. The pit was very deep, at least two stories, and very wide, almost as large as two whole tennis courts. Inside there wasn't much but a few old and busted up fences, but along the sides of the pit were several large wooden doors. Hiccup and Toothless both looked at one another, the same thought on their mind, and nodded to each other, before moving towards the large ramp that had been dug out as a entrance to the pit. There was a metal door to the ramp as well, but it was already in it's open position, allowing Hiccup and Toothless to enter the pit and look around. Hiccup walked over to one of the doors and tried to pull it open, and was eventually able to pry it open with the help of Toothless. There was nothing inside, it was just a large empty cavern that had been dug out into the ground. He moved to walk over to the next door, but just as he did the faint sound of footsteps and human voices could be heard from in the distance. In a sudden panic Hiccup only had one place to hide Toothless, so he quickly pushed him as far into the hole as he could, threw his helmet inside and shoved the door closed as fast as he could.

"There you are!" Tuffnut called from above the pit, leaning on the metal frame that surrounded it. "I saw your car and wondered where you'd run off to, how'd you get in here anyway?"

"You let me in," Hiccup replied.

Ruffnut, who was standing next to her brother, gave him a playful shove. "Nice job dumbass,"

"Sorry about that, I didn't realize you guys were closed,"

"Don't worry about it," Tuffnut said smiling. "We know you, so it's no big deal,"

Ruffnut smirked down at him. "So I see you found the boar pit, I thought you weren't interested in seeing it?"

"I didn't think it was this big," Hiccup said looking around at the pit.

She laughed. "Yeah well there used to be more practically sized pits around here, but they were all filled in after the boar fighting thing stopped, I guess nobody wanted to bother filling in this behemoth,"

"Mom said the boars were pretty big though," Tuffnut added. "She said Magmar used to breed them to be bigger than normal,"

"This was the newest pit, I think he made it extra large because he didn't know how much bigger he could get the boars to be, but he never really got to use this one much, the whole thing got shut down not long after it was finished," Ruffnut explained.

Tuffnut used his head to gesture towards the door beside Hiccup. "That's where they kept the boars, you wanna see inside?"

"Uuh, no thanks, that's alright," Hiccup replied quickly shaking his hands in front of himself.

"Oh yeah, did you hear?" Tuffnut asked. "Somebody drove a bulldozer into the side of a building like a half hour ago, everybody's been posting about it online,"

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah I-, I heard,"

"You did? How?" Ruffnut asked.

"...A co-worker called me about it a little while ago," He said. "It was Fishlegs, if you remember him from back then,"

"The fat kid?" She said, eyes looking upward in thought.

"Yeah, the fat kid,"

Tuffnut chuckled. "He called you just to tell you about that?"

"Well yeah, actually we both work in that building,"

"Holy shit, are you are you serious?" Tuffnut asked, and Hiccup nodded in response. "That's awesome, but don't you have to get back there?"

"No, I," Hiccup glanced towards the door, and noticed that a now tiny Toothless was wriggling out from underneath the door. "Actually, maybe I should," He said quickly picking Toothless up and placing him into his jacket pocket. "Listen, there's a box of stuff in the back seat of my car, could you just grab it and ring me up? I'll be there in a bit, I just need a get a few more things,"

Ruffnut nodded. "Sure okay, we'll see you back at the office then," Hiccup nodded and the twins turned around and began walking back to the front of the yard. He then turned around and dragged the wooden doors back open, no easy feast now that Toothless was too small to help, and went inside to gather Toothless' fin, the saddle and his helmet. "So you can shrink at will?" Hiccup asked as he struggled to carry all of the items out of the hole. Toothless made a cooing sound as he sat on his shoulder. "I guess that's good to know,"

The two walked back as quickly as possible while Hiccup carried all the equipment and stuffed it back into the trunk of his car, glancing over his shoulder nervously to make sure Ruffnut and Tuffnut weren't coming out of the office. Once finished he went inside and walked up to the front desk, pulling out his wallet to pay. "How much is it?" He asked.

"Didn't you say you had something else to get?" Tuffnut asked.

Hiccup thought for a moment before quickly grabbing the bungee cord from his back pocket and placing it on the table. "Right, almost forgot,"

"Cash again?" Ruffnut asked.

Hiccup nodded, slapping a few bills down onto the desk. "I really should get back, I'll see you next time," He said, picking up the box of items and carrying it out of the building and over to his car and placing it back where he had it before. Hiccup then changed back to his lab coat, leaving his leather jacket in the back seat and slamming the door shut. Just as he was about to get into the car and drive off, he noticed Tuffnut and Ruffnut coming out of the building and onto the porch.

"Hey, do you think we could tag along?" Tuffnut asked, cupping his hands around his mouth. "We love a good smashed building,"

"Uhm," Hiccup looked around awkwardly, a little taken aback by the question.

"Our pickup truck is around back," Ruffnut added, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb. "We can just follow behind you,"

Hiccup shrugged with a sigh, he couldn't think of any reason not to let them come, and they would make a good alibi if someone suspected anything. "Sure, just don't get me in trouble,"

They both smiled excitedly and ran around to the back of the building as Hiccup hopped into the driver's seat of his car. He looked over to Toothless, who was sitting in the passenger's seat of the car. "I guess you and I have to keep this secret a little longer," Toothless didn't seem to mind, and just placed in a circle a few times before curling up and putting his head down.

The gate at the front of the yard began to slowly open just as the twins appeared from behind the building in a large, dark green pickup. Hiccup pulled out of the junkyard and onto the street with Ruffnut and Tuffnut following close behind. It took a little longer to get back to the lab than usual, the attack had most likely caused a traffic jam. By the time they had arrived, the parking lot of the lab was swarming with police cars and officers. As Hiccup pulled into the driveway of the lot an officer stopped him while another walked up to the side of his car.

Hiccup lowered his window and pulled out his security card, showing it to the police officer. "I work here,"

The officer nodded. "Alright, proceed,"

"The two people in the truck back there are with me too, uh, they're family of one of my co-workers," He explained. "They're just worried, they won't cause any trouble,"

He looked back at Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who were sitting in their car directly behind Hiccup. They both had huge grins across their faces and couldn't look happier. "...Who's family?"

"Uhm, Fishlegs, that's uh...Fishlegs' wife there, and his brother-in-law." Hiccup said awkwardly clearing his throat. "They're a little odd,"

The officer sighed. "Alright, just keep them away from the building, nobody is allowed inside right now,"

Hiccup nodded and drove through towards the back of the parking lot as Ruffnut and Tuffnut were waved through. He found a few empty spots and parked the car, taking Toothless and placing him into one of the pockets on his lab coat. He got out and watched the twins pull into the space beside his car, both still grinning like idiots. Hiccup approached them as they climbed out of their truck. "Don't cause any trouble okay? And don't go into the building, it's off limits,"

They both nodded. "Sure boss man, we'll stay on the down low," Tuffnut added, looking around at the rubble with a giddy smile.

Hiccup nodded to them before turning around and walking off to find Fishlegs. As he made it towards the centre of the crowd he noted that everyone seemed to be okay, he saw Astrid sitting in one of the police cars talking on the radio and she seemed completely unharmed, which made Hiccup sigh in relief. Then looking over near the back, he found Fishlegs sitting on a large broken piece of concrete, talking to one of the police officers. Hiccup walked over to them just as the officer closed her notebook and began walking back. "Are you alright?"

Fishlegs looked over to Hiccup and immediately his expression turned to anger. "I can't believe you did that! Do you have any idea how reckless that was? What if you got caught?"

"I didn't,"

"That's not the point! Now everyone's seen Toothless, they're going to be looking for him, what are we going to do about that?" Fishlegs argued back.

"I think they might be a little more preoccupied with the criminals that just drove a bulldozer through the front of the lab, besides there's no way anyone could tell that it was me, so where are they going to look?" Fishlegs just sighed and lowered his face into his hands. "Seriously, are you alright? What happened here?"

"They took a lot of stuff, they took computers, files, equipment, somehow they knew about what we were doing here, because they were looking for very specific things," Fishlegs said. "There must have been someone from the inside feeding them information, because I don't know how they would've known about the research otherwise,"

"Did they take-?"

"The dragons?" Fishlegs asked. "I don't know, nobody will talk about them, but if I were to make a guess, I would say yes,"

Hiccup shook his head and looked off to the side. "This is bad, what if they find out how to use them? It could be catastrophic,"

"We're the only ones who know about the enlargium, and their chances of figuring it out on their own are very slim, I wouldn't worry about it," The twins began approaching them, chatting to each other about the destruction and taking pictures with their phones. "Is that-?"

"Yes," Fishlegs looked over at Hiccup with a confused expression. "It's a long story, I'll tell you about it later,"

The twins walked up to Hiccup and Fishlegs, still looking around and taking pictures, "This place seriously rocks," Tuffnut paused. "Get it? Rocks?"

"Hey it's…" Ruffnut stared at Fishlegs snapping her fingers as she thought. "...Piglegs!"

Tuffnut shook his head. "No, it's Bearlegs, or maybe Frogslegs…?"

"Fishlegs,"

"Right!" They both said in unison, while clapping their hands together in realization.

Hiccup opened his mouth to speak, but before he could he noticed a large group of officers escorting Astrid and moving towards them. Then he then noticed something else, the officer walking right next to Astrid, was none other than Snotlout, a old bully from high school and someone he hadn't seen in years and didn't care to see ever again. Hiccup turned his back to them, hoping they wouldn't notice him from behind.

"Hey is that Astrid?" Ruffnut asked looking over to them. "There's Snotlout too!"

Tuffnut turned to look. "No shit? Wave them over!"

* * *

 **Whew, that was a longer chapter! Thanks for reading, and please leave a review before you leave, I really appreciate all of your comments!**


	9. Chapter 9: Reunions

**It's been a little while, hope you haven't forgotten about me! Not a lot of action this chapter, but there is a lot of important information here, and a lot more of Hiccup and Astrid talking. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 9: Reunions

"Hey! Astrid! Snotlout! Over here!"

Hiccup cursed silently as the sound of approaching footsteps continued and stopped right behind him. Snotlout had always had a special ability to humiliate Hiccup, something he did not wish to relive, especially not in front of Astrid. Hiccup reluctantly turned around to face Snotlout and Astrid who were now looking over at the twins with confusion written all over their faces.

"Hey, Ruff, Tuff, it's you guys!?" Snotlout called out excitedly, giving Tuffnut a fist bump."Long time no see, how you been?"

"Good, I see you finally got promoted to commissioner, nice," Tuffnut said, flashing Snotlout a thumbs up.

He nodded. "Yup, sure did, and I heard you two took over the yard, how's that going?"

"Pretty easy work, pretty decent money, so I'd say good," Ruffnut replied smirking.

Astrid, who looked much less impressed than Snotlout, looked over at the twins and crossed her arms. "What are you two doing here? This is a crime scene now, not a park,"

"We came with Hiccup," Ruffnut said, pointing straight at him.

She turned to look over at Hiccup, the same unimpressed expression on her face, "Hiccup?"

"Hiccup?" Snotlout echoed, looking over to him, completely shocked. "Holy crap, I haven't seen you since...well damn, since graduation," He looked down at Hiccup's ID card which was pinned to his breast pocket. "I didn't know you worked here, what are you? A janitor?"

"He's a mechanical engineer, and he has more education than you do," Astrid said with a sigh, her statement was made more as an insult directed towards Snotlout than a compliment for Hiccup, but he felt a little swell of pride after she said it. "Now can we get back to the task at-"

"Whoa Fishlegs?" Snotlout cried out. "Man, everybody is here! It's like a high school reunion! Do you work here too?"

"Chemical engineer," Fishlegs said.

"There are two kinds of engineers?" Tuffnut asked looking over at Hiccup and Fishlegs.

"Do you two actually have any business here?" Astrid asked, clearly getting a little irritated. "Because this might feel like a reunion, but it isn't one, some of us have actual work to do,"

"Hiccup said we could tag along," Ruffnut explained, shrugging her shoulders.

Astrid looked over at Hiccup, and glared at him. "Why did you bring them here?"

"Uh…"

"Well he was over at our scrap yard when the attack happened," Tuffnut explained. "And when we heard about it he said he had to go back to the lab,"

"So we asked if we could come with," Ruffnut continued after her brother. "And he said we could, so we drove here together,"

"You need to leave," Astrid said before looking over to the officers behind her, "Please escort them out,"

"Wait, what?" Tuffnut exclaimed. "Why us? We can't stay just a little longer?"

She glared at him. "Well for starters, this is a crime scene and a site with sensitive and confidential material that you have no clearance for, and at the moment you are of no use to anyone who is here to actually do their jobs, if anything you are a distraction to people who are supposed to be doing their jobs, so no, Tuffnut, you can't stay any longer, you're lucky you were able to get in here in the first place,"

There was a moment of silence as everyone stood in silence, a little afraid to say anything else. Tuffnut slowly lifted his arms up in the air defensively, and nodded. "Right, so I guess we'll just be on our way then," Ruffnut and Tuffnut both turned to walk off with one of the officers.

"Wait, you need to leave as well," Astrid said turning to look at Hiccup.

Hiccup looked around, shocked and confused. "...What?"

"Were you here during the attack?"

He glanced over to Fishlegs, who shrugged his shoulders in response, and looked back to Astrid who was staring unwaveringly at him. "...Well no, I was at the junkyard with the twins when the-"

"Then you're not needed here, go home,"

Hiccup just nodded silently and followed after the twins and the officer as he led them back towards their parked cars.

"Sheesh, she was angry," Tuffnut said with a sigh as they walked.

Ruffnut nodded. "Yeah, I don't remember her being such a tight-ass back in high school, I wonder who shat in her cereal this morning,"

Hiccup was wondering the same thing, though not in quite the same words, Astrid had seemed fine this morning, if anything she seemed like she was in a pretty good mood. He thought to how she had almost been abducted just an hour earlier, but he didn't think something like that would've made her so upset, not like this, something else must've happened, something during the attack. Then it hit him, where was Finn? Hiccup hadn't seen him since leaving the lab at lunch, if Astrid was in charge that could only mean that Finn wasn't around to do it himself, so the question became...what happened to him? Hiccup paused a few meters from his car and turned around to look over the rubble and cop cars, around at all the people, then towards Astrid who was heading back into the building with a small group of police officers.

"Hey, you need to go," The officer said to Hiccup.

"Sorry," Hiccup muttered as he turned back around and headed towards his car, getting in and turning the engine on. Toothless hopped out of his pocket and curled up on the passenger's seat. He pulled out of the parking space and slowly snaked his car through the large chunks of concrete and began moving towards the exit. The hopeful side of his brain thought that maybe Finn had just been injured during the attack and was taken to the hospital before Hiccup had returned to the lab. The less hopeful side believed he was either dead or had been kidnapped like how they had attempted to kidnap Astrid. Hiccup wasn't sure which thought was worse, he obviously didn't want Finn to be dead, but if they had Finn, they had everything, they had all the information necessary to recreate and use the machine and who knew what that might cause. Then again, even Finn didn't know how to get the dragons to their full size. Only he and Fishlegs even knew that the englargium had such an impact on the dragons.

Once home, Hiccup immediately collapsed into his bed. It had been and long week, a long month, he had too much on his plate. He closed his eyes and rolled over onto his side, he didn't even care if he was still in his work clothes, he was exhausted and needed a break from everything. He slowly began drifting off, but just before he fell completely asleep, there was a buzzing noise and and loud ringing jolted him out of his stupor. "Gods," He groaned, sitting up. "What is is now?" Hiccup stuck his hand into his pocket and yanked out his phone, glancing down at the caller ID. " _Great,_ " He grumbled sarcastically before answering the call. "Hey Dad,"

" _Hiccup? Are you alright?"_

"I'm fine," Hiccup replied in a flat, tired tone. "I wasn't even there when it happened,"

" _You weren't hurt at all?"_

"I just said I wasn't there when it happened, I was out on my lunch break," He said scooching over to let his legs dangle off of the side of his bed. "They were gone by the time I arrived,"

" _I knew this job was a bad idea, you shouldn't work there anymore,"_

"I doubt I'll be able to for a while,"

" _I'm going to call Gobber, he always said you'd have a job at the research department if you wanted it, you can start once everything has been taken care of at the lab,"_

"No, dad-"

" _How long do you think it'll be?"_

"Dad, I don't want to work at the university, I'll find work somewhere else,"

" _Where?"_

"I don't know right now, but- you know my lab just blew up a few hours ago, I think I have the right to a little down time before you start signing me up for other jobs," Hiccup said signing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't need you to find jobs for me, I can handle it on my own,"

" _The research department is a great job, and it pays well,"_

"I know that, I just would like to look at other options first," He said moving off of the bed and walking towards his dresser.

" _Just take the job and look for options after, this last one didn't pay very well, and now you're going to be out of work, you can't waste your time with no income,"_

Hiccup sighed as he pulled open one of the dresser drawers and grabbed a fresh pair of pajamas from it. "I have enough money, and I have a master's degree in mechanical engineering, I'll be able to find a job, just let me deal with it,"

" _You can look, but I'm going to call Gobber just in case,"_

"Dad-"

" _What?"_ Stoick said, speaking to someone else. " _Sorry, I have to go now, I will talk to you about this later," click_.

Hiccup sighed and put his phone down on the top of the dresser. He quickly changed into his pajamas and climbed back into bed and shut his eyes. Since there was nothing he had to do in the morning, he was able to sleep without thinking about work. That night was one of the most restful he had had in weeks, maybe even months. Of course nothing could last forever, and his sleep was interrupted.

BAM BAM BAM

Hiccup winced at the sound of pounding at his front door, he lifted his head up ever so slightly to glance at his window. The curtains were drawn, as they had been for more than a week now, but he could still see the sunlight trickling through the cracks and illuminating off-white curtains. He dropped his head back onto his pillow, based on how bright the light coming through was, it was most likely noon or slightly later.

BAM BAM BAM

The knock came again, louder this time, and Hiccup groaned in annoyance. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming already," He called out, begrudgingly throwing the covers off of his legs and climbing out of bed. Hiccup walked slowly to the door, sticking his hand up the front of his shirt to scratch his chest as he did, then using his free hand to swing open the door. "What is it now Fishlegs? I'm trying to get some-"

He stopped suddenly and stared at the person standing in front of him. She stood there, a messy disheveled appearance, a large satchel over her shoulder, and eyes red with lack of sleep. She was wearing the same clothes she had been yesterday and she looked stressed and tired. It was Astrid. "I have to talk to you," She said firmly.

Hiccup quickly pulled his hand from under his shirt "Astrid...Hi, Astrid, you're...at my house…?" He looked over her appearance. "Are you okay?"

"Can you read electrical blueprints?"

He paused and thought for a moment. "...Well I'm a mechanical engineer...but yeah I know a fair amount about electrical engineering, why? Is something wrong?" He asked.

She glanced down at her watch with furrowed brows. "When are you free?"

"...when am I free today?"

"Yes."

"I mean, I didn't have anything planned for today, what did you need from me?"

"Come to lunch with me,"

"Right now?"

"Yes, right now."

Hiccup looked at her expression, she was completely serious, and he wasn't sure what was going on, but he wasn't about to turn her down. "Alright, just let me change, uh, wait here," He shut the door and rushed back inside his bedroom to grab some clothes. Normally he would've let her inside to sit, but she seemed like she was in a rush and he didn't want her to see Toothless. Once he had his clothes on he quickly got Toothless and plopped him into his jacket pocket before leaving with Astrid. As they walked out of the front doors of the building, Hiccup looked around the small visitor's parking lot. "So where's your car?"

"Right here," Astrid said walking forward, and placing a hand on a shiny teal and orange sports bike. She grabbed a helmet and threw it over to him and he caught it against his chest. "Get on,"

"A motorcycle…?" Hiccup had never seen Astrid with a motorcycle, but then again she always arrived and left the lab at odd times of the day to pick up and drop off items, so he never really had a chance.

Astrid swung her leg over the bike and put her own helmet on, securing it around her chin. She glanced over to Hiccup. "Do you know how to put it on?" She asked. "I can help,"

Hiccup shook his head and began putting the helmet on. "No, I've worn one before actually…"

"You've ridden a motorcycle before?" She asked, clearly surprised.

He climbed onto the back of the bike. "Not exactly,"

"Well hold on tight, it'll be fast," She said grabbing onto the handlebars of the bike.

Hiccup awkwardly circled his arms around her waist and held onto her. This was probably the closest he had ever been to Astrid, and he just hoped she couldn't feel his pounding heart against her back, then again, she might just think it was because of the motorcycle and not her. To Hiccup though, nothing scared him more than Astrid, not even a fire-breathing dragon.

They sped down the streets traveling downtown, closer to the city center until finally stopping by and old familiar restaurant. It was quite an old fashioned place, it had a dated look to it with a large blue awning and wooden doors with chipping white paint. The restaurant had a large painted sign that seemed like it hadn't been changed in years that read "The Black Sheep". It was a small pub and restaurant, known for their friendly atmosphere and their fish n' chips.

Once dismounting from the motorcycle, Hiccup just stared at the sign for a while, thinking. He wondered how long it had been since he had last been here, the sign looked exactly the same as he had remembered it.

Astrid walked to the front door and then looked back at him. "What are you looking at?"

"...Nothing, just, thinking…"

"Have you been here before?" She asked.

Hiccup looked over to her and walked up to the door. "Yeah, I used to come here with my parents when I was little but…" He paused, and he could see the discomfort on Astrid's face. "Well, my dad doesn't like coming anymore, let's go in," Sometimes he hated how much he drowned in his own self-pity. Hiccup wondered if other people saw him as a pitiful person, he wondered if Astrid saw him as a pitiful person. He figured that she probably did.

They walked inside and were immediately greeted by a familiar face, he was the co-owner of The Black Sheep and and old friend of Stoick's, Hiccup's father, it was why they used to go so often back in the day. "Astrid, how's it going? Table for two?" He said as he glanced over to me. "Hiccup?" His face quickly changed from happy to shocked, back to happy again. "How long has it been boy? How have you been doing all these years? How's your father?"

Hiccup smiled awkwardly. "My dad's good, working a lot as usual,"

"And you?"

"I'm good, working at the lab, er, I guess I _was_ working at the lab…"

His eye's widened a bit. "I heard about that, didn't know you worked there, are you alright?"

"You don't have to worry about him, Mulch, he was out on lunch when it happened, anyway, I don't mean to rush you but…"

"Of course, of course, right away then, the booth in the back right?" She nodded. "This way," He said turning and leading us down the rows of tables and booths. The restaurant was very busy, it looked like it had been doing well all the years he had been away, and that thought comforted Hiccup a little. The booth that Mulch led them to was very secluded compared to the rest of the dining area, it was so far back that the windows weren't visible from their seats. "The menus are over there, just give a holler when you're ready to order okay?"

Astrid nodded and smiled. "Thanks Mulch,"

"No problem," He said before turning and walking back down the rows.

As soon as Mulch had left and right before Hiccup could said a thing Astrid grabbed her bag and moved out of the booth, motioning for Hiccup to do the same. He was understandably confused, but complied anyway. "We just got here, where are you going?"

"This way," She said quietly, turning towards the back hall that led to the fire exit. They both walked down the narrow hall, out the back door, and into the alley that was behind all the stores. Once outside, she turned and began walking quickly down the alley.

"Where are we going?" Hiccup asked again, picking up speed to match hers. She didn't answer, and instead just continued walking until she reached the back of another one of the various stores that were along the street. Hiccup couldn't tell which is was, there were no signs to indicate the store from the back. Astrid walked up to the door and knocked on it, following it up with a "It's me,". A woman opened the door from the inside, only slightly at first to check who it was, then all the way. She moved to the side, allowing Astrid and Hiccup to enter the building.

"It's empty?" Astrid asked as the woman shut the door behind them.

"Yes,"

Astrid nodded and walked forward down the hall until they reached a heavily secured door, the woman pulled out a set of keys and began unlocking it. Hiccup glanced down the rest of the hall, he could hear the sounds of people chattering and moving about somewhere else in the building. He tipped his head around until he caught view through a doorway, he could see the leather arm chairs, the security officers, and the ATMs, they were in The Bank of Berk.

"Hiccup,"

He turned to look back, the door was open and Astrid was halfway inside, looking at him and gesturing for him to enter. He walked in and looked around, the vault had a table with four chairs inside and the walls were covered with security deposit boxes. The woman stepped inside, took one of the boxes out of it's slot and placed it down onto the table, before leaving the room and shutting the door.

Hiccup looked over at Astrid. "You really need to tell me what's going on,"

Astrid pulled a key from her purse and used it to unlock of security deposit box, opening it. "I need you to look at these," She said pulling out a number of neatly folded blueprints from the box. "Look at them and tell me what you see,"

He stared at her, a little confused, but then sat down in the chair opposite to her and took the blueprints. His eyes scanned over each page carefully before moving on to the next, and he started to understand what exactly he was looking at. "These...are for the machine,"

She nodded. "That's right,"

"It's not complete though, where's the rest?" He asked look up at her.

"You can tell that it's not complete?"

Hiccup looked back down at the blueprints flipping through them once more. "I don't know much about the machine, but it's just obvious that there's a lot that's missing here, anyone with enough knowledge about electronic machines should know as much,"

Astrid leaned forward. "Would you be able to identify the blueprints missing from these if I gave them to you? Could you tell just by looking?"

"...not just from looking this once, maybe if I read these over more times I would, or if I had more information on the machine, then yeah I guess I could," Hiccup shook his head. "Astrid-what the heck is going on? Why are you asking me all this?"

"The criminals, they took the other half of the plans when they attacked the lab," She explained with a sigh. "They probably think they have all the plans, but my uncle kept half here and half at the lab, I need the other half to rebuild the machine,"

Hiccup furrowed his brows. "Rebuild the machine? The lab was attacked yesterday, don't you have more important things to worry about right now than the machine? That machine was what led those guys to you in the first place!" He wanted to yell; _You were almost kidnapped because of it!_ But knew it was better not to, he wasn't supposed to know that.

"Listen to me Hiccup, when those men came into the lab, they didn't just take the plans for the machine, they took the machine itself, they ripped it from it's power source, dismantled it, and took it. My uncle…" She paused for a moment, looking more emotional than Hiccup had ever seen her. "My uncle was on the other side when it happened, I know they can't open the machine without this half of the plans, so unless we give them these blueprints or find a way to rebuild the machine, my uncle will stay stuck on the other side, and I don't think anyone wants me to try for the first option,"

"Astrid…"

"I don't need your pity Hiccup, I need your help, so tell me right now, can you, or can't you identify the rest of the plans?"

Hiccup's brain was on overload, she was telling him to much information all at once and he didn't know how to deal with it. "If I had enough time to look over these then I think I could,"

She pulled out another neat package of folded papers and handed it to him. "I have these, they are several pages of his notes, some of his thesis, and some other information about the machine, with this, and the full blueprints, would you be able to rebuild the machine?"

Hiccup just shook his head and looked at her. "I could, probably, but I never worked on this at the lab, I just worked on the drone, you should be asking the engineers that built the first machine,"

"You think I haven't already tried?" She asked. "They're terrified about what happened, they were trying to kidnap my uncle, they almost kidnapped me. The engineers know that once those men find out they don't have enough to rebuild the machine themselves they're going to come after anyone who can," Astrid sighed and shook her head. "Look I'm not going to lie to you, what I'm asking you do to, it might put you in danger, but every engineer from the lab has either left the city or is planning to leave, you're the only one still here, and I don't trust anyone outside the lab with this information,"

"How are you possibly going to get the other half of the plans from them?" Hiccup asked, a little afraid to know the answer. "They're already after you to begin with, and you're going to try and steal the blueprints back from them? This is crazy,"

Astrid nodded and chuckled to herself. "You're probably right, but I won't let my uncle stay trapped there, and I won't give those bastards the rest of the blueprints, so this is the only option I've got,"

"Astrid,"

"There's also something else I should tell you," She said. "You might think I'm asshole for telling you this now, but I think you have a right to know...your mother," Hiccup shuddered at the sound of those words, _your mother_ , he wasn't sure he wanted to hear what came after them. "She worked on this machine with my uncle years ago, the two of them were able to get it working, but only briefly,"

Hiccup shook his head. "No,"

"She went through, and they couldn't get her back, my uncle was looking for her, he wanted to finish the machine so he could find her again, you don't know how much he blamed himself for what happened. He told me that time passes slower on the other side, she might still be there, she probably isn't, but if she is…"

* * *

 **DUN, DUN, DUN!**

 **Don't know if anyone was shocked by this, there was foreshadowing so I was thinking some of you probably saw this coming. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it, there should be more action next chapter, and please leave a review on your way out! Thanks for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10: Put into Action

**It's been a little while since I wrote much, but I finally started getting a little more inspiration as of late, so here's chapter ten! Things are finally starting to get rolling so get excited, I hope you enjoy :)**

* * *

Chapter 10: Put into Action

Stressed didn't even begin to describe Hiccup's feelings right now, he had too much happen in too little time, and everything felt like it was crashing down onto him all at once. Part of him wanted to be angry at Astrid for telling him this right now, but he knew why she told him, he knew she wasn't trying to manipulate him. He knew Astrid loved her uncle, she loved him as much as Hiccup loved his mother before she disappeared. And if Astrid had had a chance to save her uncle without knowing it, but turned it down, she would've regretted that for the rest of her life. He had to help her, there was no question about that, but with only his skills they would be seriously limited and Hiccup knew he needed help if they were going to save Finn. Unfortunately with all the engineers from the lab long gone, their options were minimal. There was one person though, one person Hiccup trusted to help them.

"Gobber," He called out, walking into the workshop.

Gobber nearly fell out of his seat as he went to quickly stand up. "Hiccup! I heard about the attack, are you alright?"

Hiccup nodded and took his bag from over his shoulder, placing it on one of the work benches. "I'm fine Gobber, I wasn't even there when it happened," He pulled out a small thumb drive from his bag and handed it to Gobber.

"Still, it was at your-" He stopped and looked down at the drive in his hand. "What's this?"

Hiccup sighed and leaned his back against the workbench. "I didn't want to have to bring you into this mess, but it seems unavoidable right now, there's something very important that I need your help with,"

He nodded. "Of course, Hiccup, what do you need?"

"That drive contains a few of the blueprint files for the machine that Finn was working on at the lab, we need your help to rebuild it once we locate the rest of the files,"

"What? How much is on here?"

"We have half of the blueprints, there's about an eighth on that drive," Hiccup explained. "The people who attacked the lab are going to eventually figure out they're missing half of the plans, and they're going to start looking for the rest, so it's not safe to give you it all right now,"

Gobber looked down at the drive in his hand and then back up at Hiccup. "What in valhalla does this machine do Hiccup?"

"...It opens a portal, I'm not sure where to, but wherever it opens to there are creatures on the other side, and they have the potential to be very dangerous, so we need to make sure that the other half of the plans do not get into those criminal's hands,"

Gobber shook his head and grunted in confusion. "If this machine is so dangerous, why on earth are you trying to rebuild it?"

"Finn is trapped on the other side of it,"

He slowly lowered himself back into his seat, his expression a mixture of shock, horror, and deliberation. Gobber stayed like that for a few moments, eyes darting around on the floor as he thought, unsure of how to process everything. Finally he looked up at Hiccup and nodded. "If you need me to help build it, I will,"

Hiccup dipped his head down and let out a sigh of relief. "...Thank you,"

"I'm assuming I can't tell anyone about this?"

"Yes, this is strictly between us, if you have any suspicions that someone is trying to look at the files, destroy the drive immediately," Hiccup said, before handing a small slip of paper to Gobber. "The drive is encrypted, this is the password, memorize it and then flush it down the toilet. Look over the files, try to understand them as best you can. Right now we're trying to get the other half of the plans back, so the better you understand the ones we have, the better chance you'll be able to figure out which ones go with it,"

"You don't know what the other half of the plans looked like?"

Hiccup shook his head. "Unfortunately, all of the engineers who worked on the machine have gone into hiding, they know that the people who attacked the lab will come after them once they realize they don't have all of the blueprints, that's why we need you,"

"You keep saying 'we', is there someone else working with you?" Gobber asked, taking the slip of paper from Hiccup.

Hiccup paused and shifted his gaze away from him. "This is Astrid's plan,"

"And how is Astrid planning on getting the other half of the plans?"

"...I don't know,"

Gobber sighed and shook his head. "This isn't something you two should be doing on your own, this is a job for the police. Have you tried calling Spitelout about this? Or your father?"

" _Don't_ tell my dad about this," Hiccup said, whipping his head around to look back at Gobber. "Nothing good will come from telling him,"

He scowled at that remark. "Nothing good with come from going about this on your own, it's too dangerous,"

" _You know_ nothing will get done if we leave this to the police, they've been trying and failing to break up the gangs in Berk for years, crime is higher than it's ever been, and if those criminals manage to get the machine working the results will be devastating," Hiccup grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Don't worry about me, like you, I'm here as an engineer, nothing more,"

"If you say so,"

Hiccup walked towards the door before stopping and turning back to look at Gobber. "Hey, my dad, he didn't happen to call you did he?"

"He did actually, about a job for you, the offer is still open if you want it," Gobber replied.

Hiccup nodded. "I wasn't planning on it, but I think it's a good idea," He said. "It might cause suspicion if I keep visiting you randomly, but if I'm working here then it's just part of the job,"

Gobber smiled and turned to his computer. "Of course, I'll email the head of the department and set you up for a job. Once everything has been settled I'll give you a call about it,"

"Thanks Gobber, I really appreciate everything you're doing," Hiccup said, opening the door. "I'll see you later,"

Gobber waved to him as he left, and Hiccup continued down the hall and out of the front doors. As he made his way back to his car, he took out his cell phone and sent a quick text to Astrid; _I spoke to him, he agreed to everything._ Hiccup tried to be vague, just in case his phone was taken, he didn't want anyone figuring out their plan, and he didn't want to lead anyone to Gobber. He wasn't sure what else the criminals were capable of, and he was afraid to find out. More than anyone though he was worried about Astrid, he knew she was quite capable of taking care of herself, and just yesterday she had been assigned a police escort, but still he couldn't help but worry. He anticipated the moment when they would discover that they were missing half of the plans, what would they do then? Would they try to kidnap her again? If they succeeded, what would they do to her, he hated to even think about it.

Hiccup unlocked and climbed into his car, sitting in the driver's seat and chewing his bottom lip anxiously. Maybe Gobber was right, maybe this was too dangerous to do on their own, maybe he should go to the police. If he did Astrid would most likely hate him for the rest of her life, but at the very least she would be safe. He grunted in frustration and rested his head on the steering wheel.

Toothless climbed out of his pocket and onto the dash of the car where he looked out at the sun which had just started to turn orange as is moved towards the horizon. Hiccup glanced over to him, "What do you think I should do bud?" Toothless just made a quiet warble before laying down and shutting his eyes. "Well you're no help at all," He said with a sigh. Hiccup leaned back into his seat and started the car, driving out of the parking lot and onto the street. He glanced to the back, where Toothless' fin was stored, it needed some simple touch-ups, but more than anything Hiccup needed something to distract himself for a little while, so he headed off towards The Edge to pick up some items.

"Welcome back!" Tuffnut said, getting up from a folding chair that had been set up on the porch of the main building. "Didn't think you'd be back so soon after what happened," He leaned on the railing, a beer held lazily in one hand.

Hiccup climbed out of his car and shut the door. "Why is that?"

Tuffnut shrugged. "Thought you'd be mad at us for getting you in trouble with Astrid, you know, since you're trying to get that,"

"I'm not," He replied, trying his hardest not to be bothered, he didn't need get into it with the twins, not now.

Ruffnut, who was sitting in a second folding chair right next to Tuffnut's, looked up from her phone and chuckled to herself. "You're not mad or you're not trying to get that?"

"Both, and can you stop referring to her as 'that'?"

Ruff and Tuff both exchanged amused glances. "Ok lover boy, didn't mean to insult your girlfriend," Ruffnut said with a smirk.

Hiccup just scowled and walked off towards the back of the lot, a duffle bag with the fin slung over his shoulder and Toothless tucked safely in his jacket pocket. It was just better to ignore them, the more he reacted, the more they would tease him, Hiccup had to learn that the hard way back in high school.

Once over at the metal scrap pile, Hiccup unpacked the fin from it's bag and began working on it, adding and replacing what he needed to. He wasn't entirely sure what he was even doing it for, the original plan he and Fishlegs had come up with now seemed so far away. Hiccup looked up at Toothless, who was climbing around on the pile of metal pieces, and smiled to himself. "You think maybe we could go out to the country and try flying again?" Toothless looked over at Hiccup jumped around excitedly. "That's what I thought you'd say," He continued working on the fin until the faint sound of the electric gates opening in the distance caught his attention. He didn't want anyone seeing the fin, even if it was just a random customer at the junkyard, he was mostly finished anyway, so he thought it would be best to just pack up and finish the small touches back at home. Hiccup quickly packed everything back up and began walking towards the front of the yard. As he approached, he could hear voices in the distance, two were clearly Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and the third he also recognized. It was Snotlout.

"This place is pretty sweet," Snotlout said looking around at the yard, hands resting on his black police belt. "I can't believe your parents just _gave_ it to you losers,"

"They didn't just give it to us, they insisted we take over," Ruffnut said opening a small cooler that sat between their two folding chairs, and pulled out a can of pop. "Something about it being in the family for generations or something," She tossed Snotlout the can and sat back down.

"Well, it's pretty cool, probably a heck of a lot easier than my job," Snotlout said catching the pop and cracking it open.

Tuffnut scoffed. "Yeah sure, you say that, but you'd never choose this job over being a detective,"

"What makes you say that?"

"You get way more chicks as a detective,"

Snotlout laughed and slapped his knee. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that,"

"Can't be that hard anyway," Tuffnut said taking one last drink from his beer and tossing the empty bottle over the side of the porch. "You're dad's the chief of police, who's going to want to make you do any work?"

He shook his head. "No way man, if anything, my old man works me harder than he does the other detectives, I always get the really important cases," Snotlout groaned. "Not only am I in charge of pretty much everything to do with that attack on the lab last week, but I'm also supposed to be training the newbies, it sucks,"

"The newbies?" Ruffnut asked. "That doesn't sound so bad, you can probably mess with them a lot,"

"Yeah, normally it's not so bad, but we got this one new guy, and he is seriously irritating," Snotlout said grunting in annoyance as he took a drink from his soda. "He's way to eager, and he's always trying to copy everything I do, guys around the station have started calling him 'Tiny-Snotlout' all the time,"

"Aww how cute," Ruffnut said mockingly.

"He's also calling on the radio all the time, asking me weird questions and trying to chat,"

Tuffnut laughed. "Can't all the other officers hear you when you use the radio?"

"Yes! It's so embarrassing!"

It didn't seem like Snotlout was planning on going through the scrapyard, so Hiccup thought it would be alright to go back and finish up his work before leaving. He wouldn't be much longer anyway, and he'd rather not have a run in with Snotlout, he wasn't in the mood, not that he was ever in the mood to see Snotlout. Just as Hiccup turned around and began walking back off towards the metal pile, the sound of the police radio crackled to life.

" _Snotlout?! Snotlout do you copy?!"_ The voice on the other end sounded frantic and panicked.

Snotlout just groaned in annoyance, and slapped his hand against his forehead. "And that's him right there, dramatic as always," He slowly walked over to his police car, carefully placing his pop can down on the ground. Then propping the door open slightly, he picked up the radio mic. "What's it now Gustav?" He asked, tone flat and uninterested.

" _They came and-, they came here, I didn't know what to do-, I didn't get out, I was supposed to but I didn't-"_

Gustav was so nervous that he could barely string a proper sentence together, this seemed to catch Snotlout's attention. "Calm down, what's going on over there? Are you still with Astrid?" Hiccup's head nearly twisted all the way around when he heard her name, what was going on? What did Astrid have to do with all this?

" _I don't- No, no I don't think so, I don't see her, maybe-, maybe they took her, but I didn't see where-, oh my gods what do I do? Should I go after them?"_

By now, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had both stood up and leaned over the porch railing, listening to everything that was being said. Snotlout was now visibly on edge, brows furrowed and both hands clutching the radio mic. "Slow down, I can't understand you, did someone take Astrid? Is there someone else there?"

" _Yes, I think so, I don't-, oh! I see them now! Over there!"_

Snotlout quickly climbed into the driver seat and did his buckle. "Don't lose them Gustav, and tell me where you are, I'm coming over!"

" _I'm at the corner of Ironside- of Ironside and Lodbrok, moving west!"_

That was all Hiccup needed, he quickly rushed back behind a scrap pile and began to unpack the tail fin. Toothless, already aware of the situation, quickly pulled out the baggie of enlargium tablets from Hiccup's bag and swallowed one. Hiccup dragged the fin towards the back of Toothless as he grew to his full size, then attaching it to his tail. He silently cursed at himself as he attached the saddle to Toothless. He should've known the police weren't prepared to fend off another attack, he should've been there. If he had known that Astrid's police escort was a newbie, he wouldn't have left her side.

It had barely been a week since they stormed the lab, and they were already attempting to kidnap her again, they wanted this more than Hiccup had anticipated. He quickly did up the zipper on his leather jacket, pulled on his helmet, and climbed onto Toothless' back. "You ready bud?" Without hesitation, Toothless leapt into the air, and they were off.

They could see everything from the sky, all the buildings, cars, and people were in clear view. The two flew quickly over the streets, catching the attention of many below, and within only ten minutes, Hiccup had spotted the car chase. Gustav's police car ripped down the street at a dangerously fast speed, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Only a few car lanes ahead was what Hiccup could only assume was the car that Astrid had been taken in, a large black SUV with heavily tinted windows. "There they are," He said, leaning down slightly to get a better look at the scene. He thought about getting Toothless to blast at the vehicle, or to blast near the vehicle so that it would stop. But Astrid was riding in the SUV as well, and he didn't want to cause the car to crash with her inside, especially not while they were driving at such a high speed.

Hiccup could hear the sound of more police sirens approaching from behind, they had heard Gustav's distress call, and quickly drove over to assist in catching the kidnappers. He watched them from above as they slowly gained on the vehicle. This made Hiccup feel a little relieved, he thought that the police would be able to catch them before they got away, and he wouldn't have to intervene after all.

Just as he relaxed a little, the SUV swerved off of one road and onto another driving around other cars and smashing through bushes and mailboxes as it went. Gustav and the other officers struggled to keep up with the car as it drove recklessly through the streets. The sky was also getting increasingly dark, and that was only going to make the car harder to find.

The sound of helicopter blades cut through the sounds of the city below and a enormous yellow light illuminated Hiccup and Toothless from behind. He snapped his head around to see a police chopper only a few metres above them, it's large spotlight pointed right at them. The pilot look completely stunned as she stared at them, she then tried to yell something, but the unbearably loud sound of the blades made it impossible to hear her.

"Toothless dive!" Hiccup yelled, and Toothless complied, quickly pulling in his wings and diving down towards the street. They swooped up just before hitting the ground and flew in between the buildings, people screaming and running as they saw Toothless. "There!" He said as he pointed forward, not too far ahead of them was Gustav's police car, and a just little further, the kidnappers. The helicopter was not too far away either as it attempted to shine it's light down onto the SUV, but would often catch Toothless in it's spotlight. "We need to go up little, too many people can see us from here,"

They flew off to the right to get out of the sight of the helicopter and then started flying back up to their original altitude. Once they were up high enough to see the car chase again, the SUV quickly swerved right, then left into a underground parking lot. The other police vehicles didn't seem to notice, as they all continued forward, driving right past the parking entrance. Even the helicopter followed suit, completely missing them.

"Crap, go in a little closer," Hiccup said as he pulled out his cellphone and dialed in to the police station.

" _BPD, How can I assist you?"_

"There's a car chase going on downtown right now, I saw the car go into the parking garage near the intersection of-"

" _What? I can't hear you, are you in a car right now?"_

"The car went into the parking garage, the police are going the wrong way!" Hiccup yelled into the phone, hoping they would be able to hear, but there was too much wind up in the air, and Hiccup's helmet completely muffled his voice.

" _You sound really muffled, and there's a lot of wind, where are you?"_

"They need to turn around, the car is-" He noticed as a white service van drove out of the parking lot and went in the opposite direction of the police. "That's got to be them,"

" _Hello? I can't understand you, you need to put the windows up,"_

Hiccup hung up the phone, stuffing it back in his pocket before following after the van. The van drove very carefully, following all of the traffic laws and staying below the speed limits. This continued for a while until it had made it's way to the edge of the city, and entered a large unused warehouse. The warehouse looked like it hadn't been cared for in ages, it had broken windows and trash littered throughout the property.

Toothless swooped down beside another building and landed behind a cluster of abandoned dumpsters. Hiccup dismounted and crept over to the edge of the building they were near to peer out at the warehouse. There was barbed wire fencing all around it, and what appeared to be armed guards wandering about the outside. The situation was more than Hiccup could've ever imagined, and he was way in over his head. He turned back to Toothless, who didn't look nervous at all despite the situation.

"We're going to have to fly in, but there are a lot of men with guns, so you're going to have to be very fast," Hiccup stared into Toothless' eyes. "Do you think we can do it?"

* * *

They had a bag over her head and rope tied around her wrists with her hands behind her back as they dragged her out of the van and into what she assumed was their hideout. It smelled terrible in there, and she couldn't hear much in terms of cars, so it was likely that their hideout was far from the centre of Berk, the outskirts, or maybe even further. There were many footsteps around her as they walked into the building, just from the sound she guessed that there were twenty, maybe thirty men on the premises. She wouldn't be able to fight her way out of the building, even with the knife in her boot, and it seemed like they had won the car chase with the police. She was a little disappointed in the police department, she had really hoped they would be able to catch them, but in her experience the BPD hadn't been reliable in years.

They roughly pushed her down into a chair and pulled the bag off of her head. The room was dimly lit, and there were five people standing in front of her, but because of the limited lighting she couldn't see any of their faces.

"That's her right?" The biggest man asked.

"I'm pretty sure it is, she's blonde right?"

"What do you mean you're pretty sure? You're the one who grabbed her aren't you?" He barked back before turning to a different man on his left. "That's her right? Finn's daughter?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's her," He answered, his voice was raspy and low, like a old man's. "I've seen her at the lab before, she's there talking to him all the time,"

She rolled her eyes and blew a piece of her hair away from her eyes. "Finn doesn't have a daughter, I'm his niece, maybe you should do some research before you plan a kidnapping,"

They looked towards her, and one of the men emerged from the darkness. He wasn't the prettiest man she had even seen before. He had a long face with a pointed crooked nose, and and eyes that were a little too close together. The man had a large protruding moustache and a small pointed beard, both brown like his scruffy unkempt hair, that he grew out a little too long to hide his large ears.

He scowled as he moved closer to her, then he gave her a once-over. "But you are _Astrid Hofferson_ , right?" She just nodded in response, and he grinned a wide grin with spaced apart teeth as he turned back to the other men. "See, I told you I had it right, this is her,"

"So then where is Finn? I thought you said if we found her, we'd find FInn," The biggest man began, clearly irritated. It was starting to become clear that he was the one in charge here. "She's not going to help us finish the machine is she, Savage,"

"No, but she might help us find Finn," Savage replied. "If anyone knows where he's hiding, it's her,"

The old man nodded his head from the shadows. "That's right, and even if she refuses to tell us, Finn will eventually come looking for her, I've seen them together in the lab, they're very close, Finn wouldn't just leave her here with us,"

Astrid tried to recognize the old man's voice, he kept talking about being in the lab, which must mean he was the person who leaked the information in the first place, but she couldn't place his voice.

Savage turned back to Astrid and leaned in towards her with a smile. "So, where's your uncle then?"

"Not anywhere you're going to look,"

His smiled quickly turned to a scowl and he grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. "Listen, this can be very pleasant, or very unpleasant, it's completely up to you,"

Before she could reply, the sound of shouting and gunshots filled the air, followed by a screech and a loud boom that cause the whole building to shake. The men all looked towards the sound, shocked by the sudden disturbance. Astrid took her chance, moving her head forward and biting down hard on Savage's arm. He howled in pain and stumbled backwards onto the floor. She stood and jumped, quickly moving her bound hands under her feet so that they were in front of her rather than behind her, and ran off out of the doorway and down the hall.

"Idiots! Go after her!" The large man yelled as she ran.

This time the darkness worked in her advantage and Astrid managed to find a old utility closet to hide in as she retrieved the small knife from her boot and used it to cut the rope from around her hands. All the while she could hear people running about and yelling to each other. Once her hands were free, Astrid unzipped her jeans and pulled out a small tracking device that she had hidden inside her underwear, and placed it in her pocket. Then, holding onto her knife, she left the closet and began quietly sneaking through the building to try and find the exit.

Astrid turned a corner only to find an huge hole in the side of the building, there was broken peices of wood and debris all over the place and various unconscious men lying on the ground. She moved to approach the hole, to see if she could exit through it, but before she could, someone grabbed her from behind, placing a hand over her neck and holding tightly.

"Where do you think you're going?" He hissed from over her shoulder, she could tell right away from his voice that it was the large man from before. "You still need to tell me where you're uncle's hiding,"

"My uncle isn't hiding," Astrid began, as she slowly took the tracking device out and slipped it into his pocket. "He's trapped,"

"...Trapped?" He asked, loosening his grip ever so slightly.

Astrid took his confusion as a chance to take her knife and stab it deep into his thigh. He screamed in pain, and released her. Once free, Astrid immediately ran forward, grabbing a gun from off of the floor and jumping out of the hole and into the courtyard of the property. She expected to see police, but instead, standing in front of her was a gigantic jet black creature with black bat-like wings and glowing yellow-green eyes. Even in the dark she recognized who he was, she had seen him before, he was the creature that had saved her when the lab had been attacked. Astrid looked at the back of the creature, he had a saddle but no rider. Mesmerized by him, Astrid moved closer as to get a better look at him in the darkness of the night. She extended her arm out to touch Toothless, but the sound of footsteps suddenly grabbed her attention and she whipped around, gun pointing forward.

"Whoa, whoa!" Hiccup said, putting his hands up in the air. "Don't shoot!"

Astrid stared at him, slowly lowering the gun. "It's _you_ ,"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, before you go please leave a comment letting me know if you liked it or not! I love to read all of your feedback, it really helps me improve as a writer, thanks again!**


	11. Chapter 11: What's the Story?

**Welcome back! Quite a bit of action going on in the previous chapters, this one is much more dialogue heavy, but fret not, the one after this should be a little more lively. There's also a new character addition this chapter, so get excited :D**

* * *

Chapter 11: What's the Story?

Astrid carefully lowered the gun until it was pointed to the ground, still keeping both hands holding onto it firmly, finger on the trigger. " _It's you_ ," She said, staring at him. "From the attack," Hiccup nodded, hands still in the air. "Who are you?"

"Just an aqu-"

"Acquaintance, right, you said that before," She said as she looked him over. "I was hoping for something a little bit more descriptive,"

Hiccup hesitated. "...I can't really say more,"

"How did you know they would be here?"

He pointed up to the sky with one hand. "I was watching from above,"

Astrid glanced back at Toothless. "On him?" Hiccup nodded. "And _who_ exactly is _him_?"

"His name is Toothless,"

She shot him a quizzical look. "... _Toothless_?...Okay, where did _Toothless_ come from?"

"Can't really say more about that either,"

Astrid scowled at him. "Not much into sharing are you?"

"Not really," He replied, lowering his hands.

She looked over at the street. "I guess I owe you at least this much; I was wearing a tracking device, so it's best you leave now, before the police arrive," Astrid then relaxed her hands and moved off to the side to let him get to Toothless. Hiccup quickly walked over to Toothless and mounted him, attaching the bungee cord to his belt. "Wait," She said before Hiccup could fly off. "If you have any interest in stopping these men, meet me on the rooftop of the Terror Mail building, same time next week,"

Hiccup just looked at her for a few seconds, then flew off into the sky without replying. As he made his way back to the scrapyard he saw the flashing lights of the police cars rushing towards the warehouse where Astrid was. He wasn't sure if he was going to meet her, when he built Toothless' tail fin, crime fighting was not what he had in mind for him. But on the other hand, he didn't want to just leave everything to Astrid, Hiccup knew she would continue doing what she was doing with or without him, and that's what concerned him. Astrid was a little too much like her uncle; willing to do anything to achieve her goals, even if it meant endangering herself. Clearly this attitude had not left Finn in the best situation, and he was worried about how it would leave Astrid.

"Hey! I almost forgot you were still here," Tuffnut called out as Hiccup walked towards his car, his duffle bag in hand. "Did you see the news yet?"

Hiccup wasn't sure he wanted to see it, "...News?"

"Yeah, check it out," He said, holding up his phone for Hiccup to see. The screen showed helicopter footage of him and Toothless flying around in the sky, and various cellphone videos of them swooping around over the streets. "A bunch of people saw this just a little while ago, it's totally insane right? People are seriously freaking out about that weird monster thing, nobody knows what it is,"

He just nodded his head. "Yeah, that's...something alight,"

Tuffnut turned the phone back to himself and continued scrolling. "I also read some people saying that this guy might be involved in the attack on the lab,"

Hiccup furrowed his brows. "What?!" he said grabbing the phone from Tuffnut. "Who said that?" He scanned over the article until he hit the line in question.

" _Sources say that the mysterious flying creature was present during the recent attack on The Berk Central Research Lab, this concerns many, as crime in Berk is already at an all time high without the addition of a_ _ **flying monster**_ _."_ Astrid read out loud. "How could you publish this garbage? He wasn't involved in the attack, he was there trying to prevent it!" She yelled, slamming her hands down onto the desk. "I was there, you know I was there, why didn't you ask me if this was true before giving the go ahead on misinformation like this?"

"It's not misinformation, it's speculation, and you can't presume to know this guy's intentions just because you were there during the attack," He replied, taking a sip from his coffee mug. "Besides, you know we like to get articles on major events out as soon as we can, if I stopped to ask for your opinion every time I published something, Terror Mail wouldn't be the number one news site in Berk," He turned back towards his computer screen and continued working. "If you want to write an article about this then go ahead and submit one, but _I'm_ the editor-in-chief, and _I_ decide whether or not something is worth publishing, not you,"

Astrid growled with frustration, and stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind her as she went. She stalked back to her desk and dropped into her chair with a grunt.

"I told you he wasn't going to care," A voice said from above her. "His nickname is Magnus the Merciless for a reason,"

Astrid looked up to find one of her co-workers, Heather, leaning over the cubicle wall that separated their desks. Heather was pretty, young woman with a slender physique, emerald green eyes, and long dark hair, usually done up in a braid. The two had met a few years earlier, when Heather began working at Terror Mail. "And I told _you_ I'm telling him the truth even if nobody believes me, that's what being a _journalist_ is about," Astrid huffed, crossing her arms.

"Just write a counter article, you're a better writer than that douche _Harek_ anyway," Heather said. "Magnus might be difficult, but he knows your articles always do the best, so he'll definitely publish it,"

Astrid sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I don't think I should, I'd rather not put any more attention on him than necessary,"

Heather moved out of her cubicle and into Astrid's, sitting on the edge of her desk. "Right, because you're trying to work with him…" She said nodding. "But don't you think writing a positive article about him will make him more likely to show up next week?"

"Uh, you want me to research and write an entire article in less than six days? I actually care about quality over quantity, unlike everybody else working here," Astrid said looking over at her friend. "Plus, I've already got enough to do, I finally have the location of the outcast's hideout thanks to the tracker I planted. Speaking of which, have you checked if they moved at all?"

Heather rolled her eyes. "No, not since an hour ago, you need to relax, they've been in the same spot for the last twelve hours, he's not going anywhere," She said sticking her hand into her pocket and pulling out her phone, then looking down at it. "Yeah, he's still there,"

"Good," Astrid said. "Now I need to start figuring out how to get the plans from them, I don't have time to start writing a whole new article right now,"

Heather nodded. "Okay, I hear you, but how exactly are you going to break into their hideout without that flying guy's help? Not that I don't have confidence in your abilities or anything, but I doubt you alone is enough to get past a bunch of trained thugs with guns," Astrid scowled and bit her lip. "Listen, I just finished my last piece yesterday, why don't we write the article together?"

"You don't write about crime,"

Heather shrugged and stood up. "Well, we're not writing about crime, we're writing about…" She paused in thought for a few seconds. "The Fabulous Night Rider!" She said moving her hands in emphasis as she looked off into the distance.

Astrid furrowed her eyebrows. "The what…?"

"Look, you have to market him correctly, right now everybody thinks of him as 'that guy on the flying monster' super negative, not catchy at all. But if we replace that with something cool and catchy, that's what everyone will remember," Heather explained. "So…The Fabulous Night Rider!"

Astrid wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "I don't know about that name, the word fabulous, it's a little fashion runway don't you think? I mean we still want him to seem a _little_ intimidating. What about something like amazing? Or fantastic?"

"Okay, The Fantastic Night Rider! Is that better?"

She looked up and squinted her eyes in thought. "Hmmm, it's still not quite right, maybe something more like…"

"The Fantastic Night Fury?!" Fishlegs exclaimed as he started at the computer screen from over Hiccup's shoulder. "It hasn't even been a week, and you've already got nicknames from the press," He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look at this, on Terror Mail alone, you've got four articles already written about you, and that's not even mentioning the other news sites," Hiccup scrolled to the top of the page and looked at the writers credited to the article, the first person listed was _Astrid Hofferson_ , he couldn't help but smile to himself. Of all the articles written about him, hers was the most positive. "Are you listening to me?"

He jerked his head around to look at Fishlegs. "What?"

"This is serious Hiccup," He exclaimed "You need to stop taking Toothless out into public like this, you're going to get yourself caught,"

"What was I supposed to do? Just let them kidnap Astrid?"

"I know you have a thing for Astrid, but stuff like this, that's what the police are for," He said waving his arms around dramatically. "Next time you should just call the police,"

"Oh come on," Hiccup groaned turning away from his friend. "You know how unreliable they are, they're never fast enough to prevent this stuff, if I hadn't showed up when I did, who knows what would've happened,"

Fishlegs crossed his arms. "You know exactly what would've happened, you told me she had a tracking device on her, so the police would have been able to find her eventually, she would've been fine,"

"Maybe...but I'm not willing to take that chance," Hiccup said getting up and moving out of his chair. "I've got to help her,"

"Well you did, twice," He huffed, sitting down on the sofa nearby.

Hiccup shook his head. "No...she asked me to help her, and I think I should do it,"

Fishlegs jumped back to his feet and stared at him in utter shock. "What are you talking about? What did she ask you to help with? You can't keep meeting her while in disguise, what if she figures out it's you?!"

"They have part of the plans, Fish, if they manage to get the rest and build the machine, I don't know what'll happen, to Berk or to the other creatures," Hiccup said sighing and sitting down into an armchair by the window in his apartment. "We were already concerned about Finn having access to the dragons, now it's criminals, we can't just sit back and do nothing,"

"Finn is a scientist, he has decades of experience with engineering, biology, physics, he could've easily figured out how to return the dragons to their full size. Those criminals...I'm not even confident they can recreate the machine themselves let alone figure out what to do with the dragons if they get them," Fishlegs said. "Plus, and I have to stress this again, dealing with criminals is a job for the police, not you,"

"...And if the police can't handle it?" Fishlegs just stared at Hiccup and didn't say anything. "I know you're just trying to keep me out of trouble, but I have to do this. Maybe the chances are low, but if those men figure out how to get the dragons to their full size, there's no way the police are going to be able to deal with it on their own," Hiccup stared at his friend from across the room. "I _have_ to do this,"

* * *

The sun began dipping below the horizon, and Astrid watched from the rooftop. The city was dazzling from high up, especially when all the lights began to turn on. She rested her arms on the metal railing that framed the roof as she watched the sky turn orange, and then to black. A heavy gust of wind hit her from behind and she turned around to find both Hiccup and Toothless standing behind her.

She smiled and crossed her arms. "So you decided to show, did you?"

He shrugged. "I figured I owed you one,"

"Because I told you about the police? Or because of the article?"

"A little of both,"

"And here I thought you came because you were interested in stopping those criminals,"

"Well, that too,"

Astrid approached, keeping a close eye on Toothless as he sniffed around and cleaned himself. "I know where they are, I put a tracker on their leader last week when I was at the warehouse, he's moved a few times but he keeps returning to the same location. I think that's where their main hideout is," She explained to him. "I could give this tip to the police, but something tells me I'll have better luck with you,"

He nodded. "Alright, and what exactly do you want me to do?" Hiccup was pretty certain he knew what she wanted him to help her with, but he had to play dumb, after all, he wasn't supposed to be Hiccup right now, he was; "The Fantastic Night Fury".

"I need you to get me in there, they have some very important documents with them, these documents could be extremely dangerous if they're able to use them," She explained. "The attack at the lab, the first time we met, that was when they stole the documents, I need to get them back,"

"And what exactly is your plan to get in there?"

" _You are_ my plan to get in there,"

Hiccup pressed his lips together anxiously. "I know that this is a serious situation, and while Toothless is very strong, he's not bulletproof. If we just fly straight into their base...without knowing how many men are inside, he could get seriously hurt,"

Astrid nodded and glanced off into the distance in thought. "How far can Toothless shoot?"

"...How far? Uh, I'm not completely sure, pretty far anyway,"

"Farther than a gun can shoot?"

Hiccup narrowed his eyes. "You want us to just shoot at the building?"

"If you can blast a hole in the building like you did last time, and distract the men from above, I can get in there to look for the documents," She explained. "Do you think you'd be able to do that from a safe distance?"

"Probably...but are you planning on going in there alone?"

Astrid nodded "It's better if I go alone, someone else would just slow me down, and we don't need any more liabilities. Besides, I'm not planning on fighting my way in, if you can create enough of a distraction, I'll have no problem getting in and out unseen," Hiccup didn't say anything, he didn't like the way that this was going. He wanted to help out so that Astrid would be in _less_ danger, not so he could help put her in even more danger. "Look, if you're not up for the task, just say so, because I don't have time to just stand around if this isn't going to go anywhere," She said moving for the exit.

"Wait!" Hiccup called out. "Wait, I'll do it,"

Astrid stopped and looked back at him, she looked less than convinced by this. "You don't have any obligation to help me, I understand that you just want to keep your...whatever he is safe,"

Hiccup shook his head. "No, no it's not that, it's a good plan, Toothless will be fine," He said. "It's more _you_ that I'm worried about, they've already tried kidnapping you twice, and to just walk into their base like that...I don't know if it's a good idea,"

She smirked at him. "You're worried about _me_? That's sweet of you," Hiccup blushed and thanked the gods that she couldn't see it behind the helmet. "Well you don't need to be worried, even if they catch me, they're not going to do anything. They want to know where my uncle is and until I tell them, I'm still valuable to them, so they can't kill me," Astrid said, turning around to properly face him. "And anyway, getting these documents is our best move, the only reason why they want to find my uncle is so he can help them build the machine. If the plans are stolen from them, they won't be able to build it either way, and they'll have no reason to come after me,"

Hiccup nodded reluctantly. "I suppose you're right,"

"I'm glad you agree, so what would be the best way to contact you?" Astrid asked pulling out her phone. "Email or phone?"

"...I don't have...either of those so…" He didn't know what else to say, Astrid already had his phone number as "Hiccup" and even if she didn't, he knew she was a pro at investigation. Any contact information he gave her could lead to her discovering his true identity.

Astrid crossed her arms, and shot him a skeptical expression. "You don't have a phone _or_ a computer?"

"...No."

She looked back down at her phone, unlocking it. "Well how about I give you my number and you can…" She suddenly stopped mid-sentence and stared at her phone, brows furrowed and eyes darting across the screen.

"What is it?"

Astrid pressed a few buttons on her phone before pressing it to her ear. "When?...Why now? Is it the...really? The office?" She rushed to the edge of the roof and looked out at the streets below. "I don't...how long? No, don't...he is," She said, glancing over at Hiccup. "I think so...well I guess we'll find out, okay, bye," Astrid hung up the phone and turned towards Hiccup "What are you doing after this?"

Hiccup narrowed his eyes. "...Why?"

"We should go there now, a large group of men have left their hideout, so this is the best time for us to ambush them,"

"Now? Ambush? How do you even know this?"

Astrid continued to look down at the streets from the roof. "I set up a few cameras around the perimeter, and I had someone watching for me, she said they left just a little while ago, so if we're going, we should go now."

"Shouldn't we prepare a plan first? And why do you keep looking down at the street like that?"

"I'm looking down at the street, because I have reason to believe the men that just left are coming here," She replied.

"...Here? _Here_ , here?"

"Yes, here,"

Hiccup rushed to the ledge and looked down, everything seemed normal, and he couldn't spot any cars stopping near the front of the building. "How do you know about this?"

"I don't, I just know that there's been someone trailing me all week, and the men who just left are moving in this direction," Astrid explained. "This is the first time I've stayed at work after hours since the incident, they likely think that they have a chance to get me while the building is mostly empty,"

"Aren't you supposed to have a police escort?"

She looked over at him. "Yeah, because that stopped them last time..but yes, they're downstairs,"

Hiccup looked over at Toothless, then back to Astrid. "Alright, but you need to hold on really tight, I don't have anything to hold you to his saddle," She nodded, and he walked over to Toothless, who was resting by the door. "It's time to get to work, bud," Hiccup then mounted Toothless, attaching the bungee cord to his belt. Astrid approached slowly, even though she had gotten somewhat used to Toothless' existence, she was still a fair bit cautious around him. "He won't hurt you, I promise,"

Astrid smiled at Hiccup as she moved closer. "That's good to know," He stretched out a hand for her to take, and when she took it, he heaved her up onto Toothless' back. Astrid then circled her arms around his waist and leaned into him. It reminded him a little of when he rode on her motorcycle, and he could feel her heavy heartbeat against his back, though even now his was just as heavy as hers. "Okay," She said, indicating she was ready to go.

"Okay," He echoed, before Toothless took off into the air.

* * *

 **Please make sure to leave a review on your way out, I love reading all of your feedback. Let me know how you feel about the different jobs I've given all the characters, I had a especially hard time figuring out what kind of job Astrid should have, so I'd really like to hear what you think of what I ended up choosing. Thanks for reading!**


	12. Chapter 12: Infiltration

**Sorry for the long wait! Because of Christmas, December is a extremely busy time for me and I haven't had very much free time to write. Luckily I was able to get this done for December, and I should be able to get more done in January so huzzah! I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 12: Infiltration

Breathtaking. That was the word Astrid would've used to describe how it felt to soar above the city on Toothless' back. She had ridden in a helicopter once before, but that couldn't even compare to this. There was nothing obstructing her view of the vastness of Berk, and nothing blocking the wind that rushed past them as they whizzed through the air. She could feel the moisture of the clouds as they passed through them, and the sharp coldness of the air so high in the sky. Astrid loved everything about being in the air, she loved it more than she could've ever imagined. It was like nothing she had ever experienced.

"This...is amazing,"

Hiccup chuckled. "I'm glad you think so, most people misunderstand him when they first see him,"

"Is that why you hide?" Astrid asked.

He paused for a moment before speaking. "...It's one of the reasons,"

Just as the sun fully disappeared behind the horizon, Astrid peered over Hiccup's shoulder and spotted the building just ahead of them. "There, it's the red auto shop at the corner," She said, pointing forwards. "Land behind this building and let me off, I'll continue on foot,"

Toothless quietly swooped down behind another building and Astrid dismounted from him. "How will I know when to start the distraction?" Hiccup asked.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and turned on the flashlight at the back. "Stay on the north side of building, I'll flash this light in your direction when I'm ready,"

He nodded. "Got it,"

"Try and stay as high as possible, and make sure to keep moving around in the sky, it'll make you harder to hit,"

"Right, and if something goes wrong…"

"It won't."

"But if it does, just yell for me,"

Astrid smirked at him. "And you'll come rescue me?"

"...Something like that,"

She just chuckled to herself. "Noted. Now let's get going before the other men figure out that I'm not at the office,"

"Alright," He said before Toothless leapt back up into the air and disappeared into the darkness of the night, flying off towards the building.

Astrid began briskly walking down the street towards the auto shop that was the cover for the outcasts' hideout. The area was quite desolate, not many people lived out here, which was why it probably made such a good place for them. She approached the chain link fence that surrounded the property and noted the two men who sat outside the auto shop. They were standing by the front door listening to a small portable radio and chatting amongst themselves. Luckily for her, the two men were too busy chatting, and it was too dark for either of them to notice as Astrid quietly passed by the front gate and slipped behind a tree. She took out her phone and quickly flashed the light two times up to the sky, before turning it off and tucking it back into her pocket.

For a moment she waited there as the radio continued to play, but soon there was a loud high-pitched scream from above and a huge boom as something hit the side of the building. The two men rushed over to see what had happened and Astrid immediately took her chance, climbing over the fence as another blast hit the building. She hid around the side, watching as more men came running out from inside to see what all the noise was. As they all stood in the yard trying to figure out where the blasts were coming from, Astrid crept around to the side door. There was a small window on the door that had been covered up with cardboard from the inside, she tried to peer in through a crack, but it was too dark to see anything. Astrid pressed her ear to the door and listened carefully, not hearing anything on the other side, she quickly pulled two bobby pins from her hair, bending one to have an L shape and the other to have zig zags. Using these, she picked the lock and very slowly opened the door, making sure that no one was on the other side. Another screech and boom echoed through the air as she shut the door behind her, and a few men could be heard rushing up a flight of stairs and outside. Turning a corner in the darkness of the empty hall, she felt her hands up and down the walls as she walked until her hand hit a small metal door. Astrid opened the door, turned on the light on her phone, and used it to look over the buildings electrical panel. Her eyes scanned over all of the switches until she found the breaker, and she immediately pulled it down, cutting the power and turning off all of the remaining lights. From inside her jacket Astrid produced a multi-tool of which she opened up into a pair of small pliers. There was a protruding piece of metal with a slot on the panel door that was meant for a lock to be placed, using her pliers she bent the metal backwards until the door would no longer open. In the pitch darkness, she slowly continued, approaching where she had heard the men come from, and found what she believed was a staircase leading into a basement. She nearly fell down the stairs as another blast smashed into the building, shaking the ground. Holding tightly to the railing, Astrid crept down the stairs in the dark, feeling around with her feet as she went.

"Did it hit the power? What's going on?"

"I think maybe whatever is shooting at us blew a fuse,"

"Grab your guns, we need to go check the box,"

"Careful on the stairs,"

Astrid stiffened as she heard three voices approaching her, they all began climbing the stairs and when the first man's shoulder brushed against hers she just continued walking down, a little more quickly this time. "Excuse me," She muttered, in the lowest voice she could muster up.

"Watch out, someone's coming down," He said as they continued up the stairs.

She let out a sigh of relief as she made it to the bottom of the stairs, and started wandering down one of the pitch black hallways, hands against the wall feeling for any doors she could enter. The first door she found she opened and entered, turning her phone light on to get a better look around. It was what appeared to be a small makeshift laboratory, with old mason jars and dollar-store measuring cups and funnels scattered across the counters. There was no paper and no filing cabinets, but in the corner of the room was a small desktop computer, pulling her multitool back out, she crouched down by the computer and turned it around. With the small screwdriver bit, Astrid unscrewed the back of the computer and pulled the hard drive out, stuffing it into her jacket pocket and turning the computer back around.

Another blast shook the building, the rumble it made felt even more intense underground, and soon after came the sound of gunfire from above. "No time to waste," Astrid whispered to herself as she climbed back to her feet and exited out to the hall. She was able to find a few other rooms, but none of them were of any importance, one was a small bathroom, another was just a closet, and the last one was a gun storage room. Just when Astrid was about to return to the surface she heard a low rumbling sound from the end of the hallway. She cautiously approached, listening carefully to the noise as it got louder. At first she thought maybe it was some kind of a machine, maybe something that had a power source separate from the building, but as she got closer it became very clear to her that the sound was coming from something that was alive, an animal. The rumbling sounded like growling, but not just any growling, it didn't sound like a tiger or a wolf, it sounded larger, much larger.

Astrid turned on the flashlight on her phone, and shined it down the hall to find a single door at the end only a few metres ahead. It was no ordinary door either, it had numerous locks securing it shut in addition to a large cage door over the first, locked up with a heavy metal chain. Upon further inspection she found that of all the locks, only one required a key to be opened, the rest could be easily unlocked from the outside. That could only mean one thing.

From the sky above, Toothless shot another blast down at the building and it crashed down at the ground below, where a large group of people had gathered. Hiccup leaned forward and squinted his eyes in a attempt to see if Astrid had made it out yet or not. "Do you see her anywhere bud?" Toothless warbled in response. "Me neither, I'm starting to get worried, what if they caught her?"

More flashes of light and the sound of guns firing off could be seen and heard from below, Toothless quickly swooped backwards, startled by the loud sounds. "Can they see us up here?" Hiccup looked down at the men, but from what he could see they were just firing randomly into the air. "Doesn't look like it," He touched the side of Toothless' head. "Let's let them know we're still here," Instead of shooting out another blash, Toothless whined and shook Hiccup's hand away from his head. "What's wrong bud?" He continued to make huffing and whining sounds while backing away from the building. Hiccup slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the enlargium. "Do you need more?"

The building shook with the heaviest blast yet just as Astrid managed to open all of the locks on the door. She knew she was pushing her luck by staying for so long, but she had to know what was behind this door. With shaky hands she grasped the handle and slowly pulled it open,the door was very, very heavy and took quite a bit of strength to pry open. Astrid was able to get it open just far enough that she could slip in, leaving the chain between the door and the frame to prevent it from completely shutting behind her. The room was completely pitch black, but she could now hear the growling louder than ever, she could even hear the heavy breathing of something much larger than herself. Just by how high the sound was coming from she could tell that this wasn't any ordinary creature, whatever it was it was taller than any horse she had ever seen. Astrid picked up her phone and slowly moved it up towards the growling sounds, it stood there, behind a set of heavy metal bars, it's huge mouth looked like it could gobble her up in one bite. It was tall, and it had an enormous round head and a full mouth of jagged pointed teeth. The creature had large nostrils and yellow snake-like eyes, with one large horn on the top of its nose, and several pointed horns adorned on its head like a crown. As Astrid moved the light lower, she noted the large wings that it had, along with a large spiked tail and clawed feet. She took a shaky step forward to get a better look at it, but as she did another blast hit the building and the creature immediately roared and charged towards the bars, smashing into them.

Astrid stumbled backwards and landed on the floor, she could hear even more growling sounds, coming from further into the room. She scrambled back to her feet and rushed to the door, using all of her strength to push the door open and squeeze through to exit back into the hallway. Whatever was in that room, it was angry, and getting more angry by the minute, growling and roaring while repeatedly crashing against the bars of its cage. It was then that all of the lights returned, and Astrid knew that she had run out of time, she had to get out. The creature's roaring and slamming we sure to catch someone's attention, and just as she thought, from the other end of the hall she could hear fast approaching footsteps. Astrid quickly ran into the gun storage room, shutting the door behind her and hiding inside. She listened as the footsteps ran past her and towards the end of the hall

"The door's open, do you think one of them got out?"

"They're too big, if they went through the door would've been taken clean off,"

"Those things can shrink remember,"

There was slight clunking and rattling sounds as one of the men inspected the locks. "It looks like the lock was picked, if one of them did get out, it had help from someone,"

"Do you think it was a inside job?"

"Whoever it was, they clearly planned this attack and the power outage...go find Alvin, we need to let him know what happened here, I'm going to make sure all the creatures are still accounted for,"

"Alright, be careful," He said turning and running back down the hallway.

As soon as he passed by, Astrid slowly opened the door and looked down the hall, the man who had stayed behind wasn't looking her way, he was pushing the door open and looking inside. She crept out of the room as quietly as she could and snuck down the hall, back towards the stairs. Toothless shot another blast at the building, causing Astrid to stumble as she climbed out of the basement.

"Hey!" Someone yelled from behind her, she didn't bother looking and bolted towards the side door, tearing it open and making a break for the fence. She could hear heavy footsteps chasing after her, by the sound if it there were at least five people. "That's her! That's the girl!" One person yelled as they ran. Astrid jumped up onto the fence and began climbing over, someone's hands grabbed onto her leg but she managed to kick them off and make it over. The fence rattled as more people scrambled to climb after her. "No! Don't shoot her, we need her alive!"

Astrid continued running, her lungs burned like fire but she didn't slow down, she couldn't. The men chased close behind her, slowly gaining on her, but something swooped in from above and created a huge gust of wind that knocked them to the ground. She turned back to find that Hiccup and Toothless had landed on the ground right behind her.

He reached his hand out towards her. "Quick! Get on!"

Astrid grabbed onto his arm without hesitation and he pulled her up onto Toothless' back, who leapt back up in the air and flew off into the darkness of the night.

The men climbed back to their feet, still staring at the sky where the three of them had disappeared. More men from the hideout rushed over to see what had happened, followed closely by their leader, Alvin the Treacherous. Alvin, not the least bit happy about what had conspired, shoved past his men to see where Astrid had gone to. He turned to look back at them, clearly furious. "What happened?"

"The creature from before, the same one who came when we were raiding the lab, it looks like the girl is working with it," One man explained. "She must've been using it has a distraction to get into our base,"

"That must be it, someone got into the locked room in the basement,"

"Why does she have a creature just like the ones we have? Does she know how to use them too?"

"Those things were from the lab, weren't they? Maybe she was trying to get them back,"

"It's got to be Finn's doing!"

"I thought she was at the Terror Mail building? Weren't men sent to get her? What happened to them?"

"Enough!" Alvin roared. Everyone fell into silence. "How did she even know where our base was?! Let alone managing to get inside of it!" No one answered. "You should've been watching the doors, all of them, no matter what else is going on, the security of our base is more important than anything else...our location has been compromised, we need to find somewhere else to go, immediately,"

Savage emerged from the back and moved to stand beside Alvin. "Alvin...we can't move right now, the creatures...they're still at full size, and because of all the noise they are extremely agitated,"

"Then we'll just have to chain and muzzle them," Alvin looked over at a group of men. "Go now, we need to move as soon as possible," They nodded and rushed off towards the hideout. Alvin then turned to Savage. "Did you know they could do that?"

"Do what?"

"Blast like that, the ones we have can breathe fire...but nothing like what hers can do,"

Savage shook his head. "I don't know, the one she has looks different from ours...maybe it's blast is stronger than theirs, we know that they're not all alike,"

Alvin turned to look off into the distance. "The one she has...we need to capture it,"

* * *

"Which one is it?" Hiccup asked, as they flew, looking over the buildings.

Astrid leaned down a little to get a better view, and pointed to a small street of townhouses not too far off. "Over there, I'm the blue one at the end," He nodded and they swooped down towards the buildings, landing on the roof of her townhouse. Astrid unwrapped her arms from his waist and climbed down onto the roof, holding onto the chimney for support. "Thanks," She said.

"You were in there for a long time,"

She smirked at him. "Were you starting to worry about me?"

"Yeah a little, I wasn't sure if they had caught you or not,"

Astrid smiled and brushed the bangs away from her eyes. "They didn't catch me, thanks to you,"

"Did you find anything?"

She nodded. "I found a lot actually," Astrid reached into her coat and pulled out the hard drive she had taken. "They had some sort of a lab in there, and I took this from the computer inside, hopefully there's something on it we can use. I'll take a look at this tonight, I've got a guy who used to work at the lab too, I can get him to look at it as well,"

Hiccup smiled, though she couldn't see it, and let out a sigh, "That's great, maybe the documents are on there,"

"Maybe, we'll just have to see," She said tucking the hard drive back into her coat. "There was something else though...maybe you can tell me more about it,"

He looked over at her. "... _I_ can?"

She nodded again. "There were more...of _him_ in there, I got a good look at one of them, but from what I could hear down there, they have at least two more,"

"...What?"

"The one I saw didn't look exactly like Toothless, but it was definitely similar, they're like...two different dog breeds or something. Whatever it was it wasn't any animal I've even seen before, and it had...wings. Just like his,"

"They had more in the basement? Why didn't you tell me this earlier? We have to go get them,"

Astrid grabbed his arm. "We can't, you said it yourself, no matter how strong Toothless is, he isn't bulletproof, if you go now you'll only get yourself killed," Hiccup nodded. "Listen, I know you're not exactly one for sharing...but I think it's time you tell me where Toothless came from," He tensed up and pulled his arm away from her. "You obviously know something, something you're not telling me, something that could help us,"

"I don't."

"Toothless is from the machine isn't he? The one my uncle built,"

"You're wrong."

"So how did you get him? Are you working with them somehow?"

"I'm not!" Hiccup yelled back. "I would never work with anyone trying to capture and lock up creatures like Toothless,"

"Then why the secrecy? Why the mask?" She asked, moving in closer.

"Because...because I'm…" He stuttered.

"Because you're _what_?" Hiccup's mind was going a mile a minute, there was too much being asked all at once and he wasn't sure if he was ready to tell Astrid the truth, or even how to explain why he had hid it from her in the first place. A thousand different explanations and scenarios flashed through his mind all at once as he tried to think of the best way to say it. "Because you're _what_?" She repeated, more firmly.

"Because I'm not like you!" He blurted out.

Astrid just stared at him, clearly a little confused by his response. "You're...not like me? What is that supposed to mean?"

Hiccup silently cursed himself for giving the most vague and least useful explanation of his life. "I'm trying to say that I'm...because I'm actually,"

"Wait...you're not saying…" She said staring at him. "That you're from... _there_ , are you?"

"There?"

"The other place, where Toothless is from," Astrid said. "Are there others like you?"

"Like _me_? Not really," Hiccup scoffed.

"How did you get through the machine without anyone noticing?"

"...it was when the machine malfunctioned, there were only a few staff members in the building that day,"

Astrid crinkled up her eyebrows and looked towards the ground. "...Of course, when they thought something had come through...they were right...it was you and Toothless…" She looked back up at him. "I can see it now, those creatures in the basement, they were the small life forms that came through the machine when my uncle first went in. I remember that they changed size from large to small when they first came through, somehow the outcasts were able to figure out how to get them to their full size."

Hiccup nodded. "That's right,"

"If they're anything like Toothless...there's no telling what they're capable of, we can't let the outcasts keep them for much longer, who knows the damage they could cause,"

"We should use what's on the hard drive, if there's important information on there, maybe we can use it as leverage,"

"Possibly, first I need to look through it all," Astrid said. "Go home and rest for now, meet me here in two days, nine o'clock, I'll have figured it out by then," She moved towards a skylight on the roof and opened it up.

"Will you be alright?" He asked. "They might still be after you,"

Astrid smiled at him, halfway inside. "I'll be fine, after what happened tonight they'll be too busy moving their base to bother me for a little while,"

He smiled and nodded. "Okay, I'll see you later, goodnight,"

"Goodnight," She said before ducking into her house and shutting the window behind her.

Toothless took flight again and the two began flying off towards home. As they soared through the sky, Hiccup's phone made a ping sound indicating that he had received a text message. He took his phone out from his jacket pocket and looked down at it. Astrid had sent him a message; _Meet me at the black sheep tomorrow at eleven, and bring Fishlegs with you._

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 **Thanks so much for reading, I really hope you liked it, please be sure to leave any comments, questions, concerns, or cries of anguish in the reviews for me, I read every single one, and I try my best to reply back to all of them. And for those of you reading this in 2017, happy holidays and happy new year! I'll see you in 2018 :)**


	13. Chapter 13: A Synonym for Hero

**I accidentally deleted this chapter, not exactly sure how it happened...though I suspect it happened when I highlighted the entire chapter to check how many words there were (I keep 10 chapters in one document), I didn't even notice until I went back to proofread it. Needless to say I had a bit of a panic attack, thinking that I had to rewrite the entire thing from scratch. Luckily for me, and you guys too, I use google doc, and I was able to figure out that they have a way to look at previous versions of your documents and restore them.**

 **Whew! That was definitely not a pleasant experience...anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It came back from the dead for you!**

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Chapter 13: A Synonym for Hero

Fishlegs sat in the passenger's seat, scowling, arms crossed, and shaking his head. "I can't believe this," He grumbled.

"Fishlegs, please," Hiccup sighed, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel as he drove along. "I really don't want to get into this again, haven't we talked about this enough?"

"No, we clearly haven't, because nothing I say ever seems to get through to you, what part of keeping this on the down-low involved telling Astrid and flying her around on Toothless' back?"

"It was one time,"

Fishlegs turned to look at him. "Oh, so you're _not_ planning on doing it again?" Hiccup didn't reply, and just kept his eyes on the road. "That's what I thought,"

"Don't be like that, you know why we have to do this,"

"I know why you want to do this,"

Hiccup sighed again and shook his head. "Fishlegs…"

"I know, alright? I know you care about the dragons, and I know that keeping them safe is your number one priority, but don't act like your feelings for Astrid had nothing to do with any of this," Fishlegs said with a huff. "Because I know better than that,"

"Yeah, okay, I like her, and I wasn't about to just let her get kidnapped by a bunch of gangsters, I don't see why that's such a big deal,"

"It's not even that anymore!" Fishlegs cried out, throwing his arms into the air. "When she asked you to meet her, you should've said no! It's one thing to swoop in and save her every once in a while, it's something else entirely to start talking with her and making plans with her and going places with her, what if she finds out it's you? What'll happen then?"

"She won't."

"How can you know that?"

"When I'm the Night Fury, I'm covered in leather and my head is completely concealed in my helmet, she can barely hear me talk through that thing, she's not going to find out it's me,"

Fishlegs eyed Hiccup. "You're sure you don't _want_ her to find out it's you?"

"Fishlegs, just trust me on this one, I don't want Astrid to find out it's me anymore than you do," Hiccup said firmly, gripping his hands tightly to the steering wheel. "Now can we just drop it already?"

He sighed and put his hands up in defeat. "Alright, fine,"

"Thank you,"

"Could you at least tell me why she specifically wanted _me_ to come?"

"I don't know, she didn't specify," Hiccup said. "And she never wants to discuss details unless we're in talking person and in a secure location, you know, encase someone is trying to monitor us,"

"Did you guys find DNA or something while you were in the Outcasts hideout?" Fishlegs asked.

Hiccup shrugged. "I don't know, she didn't mention it to me when she ran out, she did see them, so I guess it's possible,"

"Wait," Fishlegs turned to look at his friend. "You didn't actually see the dragons yourself?"

Hiccup glanced over at Fishlegs and then back to the road. "No, why?"

"How do you know she's telling the truth?"

He furrowed his brows. "Why would she lie about something like that?"

"I don't know, I just don't think it's a good idea to tell her any information that could get us in trouble, she might have ulterior motives that we don't know about," Fishlegs explained, biting his bottom lip nervously.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Why are you acting like Astrid's a total stranger all of a sudden? We both went to primary school with her, you know what she's like. Astrid's a straight-shooter, she wouldn't manipulate us like that,"

"I don't know about this…" Fishlegs mumbled while shaking his head.

The Black Sheep came into view, Hiccup pulled into the parking lot and stopped the car. He turned towards Fishlegs and put a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, we don't have to tell her anything about what we did before the lab got attacked. Just stick with what I told you earlier, pretend you don't know about Toothless, the dragons, or the enlargium. All you know is what I've told you this morning,"

"I'm a bad liar, you know I'm a bad liar," Fishlegs said fidgeting in his seat.

"Just...say you have a stomach ache if you think you're going to reveal something,"

Fishlegs just stared at Hiccup is disbelief. " _That's_ your brilliant plan to keep us out of trouble?"

"Do you have a better one?"

"Yes! Not going in there!" He exclaimed.

Hiccup shook his head and sighed. "Don't you think it'll be more suspicious if we don't show up? Astrid has no reason to think that we know anything about the dragons, so just calm down and act normal. She never asks me to meet unless it's important, we have to this; for the dragons,"

Fishlegs groaned and rubbed his temples. "Alright. Fine. But next time, unless it's one-hundred percent necessary, don't meet with her as the Night Fury,"

"Let's talk about that later, okay? We need to get this done first,"

"Alright, but we _are_ talking about this,"

They both climbed out of Hiccup's car and began walking through the small parking lot and towards the front of the Black Sheep, where the entrance was. The restaurant was already buzzing with people, Hiccup and Fishlegs brushed past a few people exiting as they shuffled inside. It was quite noisy inside, the sounds of chattering people and clinking dishware filled the air.

Mulch walked towards them and gave them a small smile. "Hello boys, she's waiting in the back booth for you," He looked towards Hiccup. "You know the way there right?"

"I do, thanks Mulch," He said giving him a quick smile and a nod before heading off towards the back of the restaurant.

As they continued, Fishlegs leaned in towards Hiccup. "How many times have you been here with her? Is Mulch in on this whole thing too?"

"I've only been here once, and I'm pretty sure Mulch doesn't know anything," Hiccup whispered back. "Now will you just relax, you're starting to stress me out,"

Finally they made it to the back, and over to the last booth, Astrid sat inside, a cup of coffee and her laptop out on the table as she stared intently at the screen. She looked up at them as soon as they made it into view. "You're late," She said before shuffling her things closer to herself to make more space on the table.

"Yeah, sorry about that, we got...uh, delayed," Hiccup said awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck as Fishlegs climbed into the opposite side of the booth from Astrid. Hiccup moved to sit beside Fishlegs but he didn't scootch in further, instead just gesturing towards the spot beside Astrid. "Move over Fish," Hiccup said staring at his friend.

"Plenty of room over there," Fishlegs said staring back.

"Just sit down," Astrid said. Moving her bag over to make more room.

Hiccup shot a quick glare in Fishlegs' direction before shuffling in beside Astrid, it wasn't a very large booth, so they ended up sitting so close their arms brushed against each other. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "So, what exactly did you call us here for? It must be pretty important,"

Astrid nodded. "It is, and I want to make sure that everything we discuss here stays between the three of us, I can't have any of this information getting leaking to anyone else," She glanced to Hiccup, who nodded, and then to Fishlegs.

"We won't tell anyone," Hiccup assured her, trying to keep from looking his her direction, afraid of how close their faces would be if he did. "You don't have to worry about Fishlegs, he can keep a secret,"

"Alright," Astrid said. "I found some information, and I need you two to take a look at it," she explained, turning her laptop around so that Hiccup and Fishlegs could see the screen. "I was able to get my hands on a hard drive from the outcasts, I was hoping it would have some of the machine plans that were stolen during the attack on the lab, but instead it seems to have information of some chemical compound or something?" She pushed the laptop closer to Fishlegs. "Do you know what it is?"

He leaned forward to look at the screen and his eyes quickly scanned across the all the information. Hiccup noticed at Fishlegs stiffened, and his eyes slowly moved upwards to meet Hiccup's. "It's a molecule," He said.

"...A molecule?"

" _A molecule_."

Astrid glanced between the two as they stared at each other. "Do you know something about it?"

Fishlegs looked over at her. "...This was the molecule that was found on the other side of the machine, it was discovered not long before the attack, they must have found our files on it,"

"Is there something special about this molecule?"

"You mean other than the fact that it's undiscovered in the scientific community?"

Astrid shook her head and scrolled down the file. "No, I mean, look at this," She stopped at a page closer to the end of the document. "I'm no scientist, but from what I read, it seems like they're trying to make a condensed version of the molecule, why would they want to do that? Is there something they want to use it for?"

Fishlegs and Hiccup both lunged forward and began quickly reading through the file. "They're not just making a condensed version..." Fishlegs said looking over at Hiccup. "They're making a super condensed version…"

"Why would they do that?" Astrid asked. "Was there something special about this molecule?"

He squirmed in his seat a little. "...I don't know, we didn't have a lot of time to study it..."

"See the thing is, there was something else I found, and I think it might be connected to this somehow," She began, voice hushed. "You guys have seen the Night Fury right? The flying guy that's been all over the news lately?"

They glanced over at each other and then back to her. "Yeah, what about him?" Hiccup asked.

"The creature that he flies around on...I saw more of them in the outcasts' hideout, there were at least three of them down there, all huge with giant wings," She explained. "But that's not the only thing, they didn't just look like the Night Fury, they also looked like the creatures from the lab,"

"The lab?"

"I know you never actually saw them yourself, but I swear, the one I got a good look at was _exactly_ like one of the creatures from the lab," Astrid said. "Same colour, same body shape, it was uncanny,"

Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck and laughed nervously. "...Uh...weren't those creatures really tiny?"

"They were, that's what I'm concerned about," She continued, shaking her head. "I don't know if you knew about this, but when my uncle went through the machine and found those creatures, they were huge on the other side, they only shrunk after they came through into the lab," Hiccup and Fishlegs both did their best to look shocked at Astrid explain what they already knew. "What if this molecule is somehow the key to getting these creatures back to their full size?"

"...That would be a problem," Hiccup said nodding.

"I've seen what the Night Fury can do, if these creatures can do even a fraction of what he can do, then we do not want them in the hands of the outcasts, or any criminals," Astrid said turning the laptop back around to face her. "If there's anything, _anything_ you can learn about this molecule from these documents, tell me right away," She said pulling a small thumb drive out from the side of her laptop and placing it on the table in front of Fishlegs. "Can you do that?"

Fishlegs looked over at Hiccup, then took the drive off of the table and tucked it into his pocket. "I'll do what I can,"

"Thank you," Astrid said with a sigh of relief. "Make sure to keep that drive safe, and if you suspect that anyone is trying to steal it, destroy it. I have the original hard drive hidden elsewhere, it's more important to keep this from spreading any further,"

He nodded. "Right,"

"Good, let me know when you've learned anything, we can meet up again as soon as you have something," She said, closing her laptop and packing it back away into her bag.

"Sounds good," Fishlegs got up and shuffled out of his booth. "I need to use the bathroom," He said to Hiccup. "I'll meet you at the car, okay?"

Hiccup nodded as he stood up. "Sure," Fishlegs walked off towards the front of the restaurant, leaving Hiccup and Astrid alone at the table. He looked over at her as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "You're not going back are you?"

She looked up at him. "Back?"

"You mentioned that you saw the dragons in their hideout, are you going to try and go back in there?" He asked.

Astrid shook her head as she stood up. "They've definitely moved out of that hideout after I was able to get in, there's no point in going back there now, there'll be nothing left to find,"

"You know that's not what I meant,"

"You know I have to, if I'm right about this, they have four of those dragons, _four_. Have you seen what just one of them can do? Imagine how much destruction they could cause under the outcasts control,"

" _That's_ your argument for going in there?" Hiccup stared at her. "You should leave this up to someone else, someone better equipped," _Someone like the Night Fury_ he thought to himself.

"I appreciate your concern Hiccup, I really do, but there is no one else," She said shuffling past him and out of the booth.

He turned around as she went past. "No one else? So you're doing this alone?" Hiccup asked, he wasn't sure why he was asking her this when he already knew the true answer. Maybe he wanted to know if she would tell him the truth, or if she would keep the Night Fury's secret. Which did he want? Did he want her to side with him, or his alter ego? He wasn't sure of that either.

Astrid smiled at him. "I'm not alone, I'm doing this with you,"

"That's not what I meant either,"

"I know," She said turning to walk back to the front.

"...You shouldn't do this for him," Hiccup said suddenly, causing her to turn back around to look at him. "I know you how much you care about Finn, but you shouldn't risk your life like this, it's not what he would want you to do,"

"I'm not doing it just for him, it's bigger than one person now," Astrid said. "Everyone in this city, maybe even the country could be at risk...and my uncle...I've already come to accept that he's most likely already dead,"

Hiccup nodded and took a step towards her. "I guess you're probably right,"

Astrid's face slowly dropped as the realization hit her. "Hiccup...I'm-"

"Don't apologize," He said, raising a hand up. "You have no reason to apologize to me, you're the only one back then who didn't tease me about it,"

She scoffed. "That's not really something to be proud of, I could've done a lot more," Her eyes trailed to the floor. "After what happened to my uncle...I began to finally understand what it must've been like for you, and I started to wish I had said something, or done something. I don't know, made them stop saying those things,"

"We were just kids," Hiccup said. "Besides, what you did, not teasing me, back then it really meant a lot, still does," He gave her a pat on the shoulder as he walked past. "I'll see you later Astrid, take care of yourself,"

She turned around to watch him walk back to the front. "You too,"

He continue out of the restaurant, into the parking lot, and hopped back into his car where Fishlegs was waiting. "Was that so bad?" He asked as he put the key into the ignition and started the engine. "She didn't suspect anything,"

"I guess not," Fishlegs said. "What am I supposed to do about this though?" He asked, holding up the thumb drive Astrid had given him.

"Take a look at it, make sure there's nothing you don't know inside," Hiccup said, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the street. "Then wait a few weeks and tell her what we already know,"

"How am I supposed to explain that? The only reason we found out about that was because of Toothless!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air. "She's going to find out we're keeping things from her!"

"She's not going to find out anything, just look through the documents and try to find a good explanation, it's not like she's a chemical engineer, she's not going to be able to check your science on this,"

"I suppose so…" He replied reluctantly. "Are you sure you want her to know about this? The more she connects all this to the lab, the closer she'll come to finding out about you and Toothless,"

"There's no way she'll find out,"

"How are you so confident that she won't find out?"

Hiccup stopped the car at a red light and turned towards Fishlegs. "Look at me Fish, you know what I'm like, you know what people think of me, do you honestly believe anyone would think that _I'm_ the Night Fury?" Hiccup asked, raising his eyebrows. "Anyone at all?"

Fishlegs sighed and nodded his head. "Alright, alright, fair enough,"

"I know you're just concerned, but I really don't think it's going to be a issue, Astrid's never going to-" Before Hiccup could finish his sentence the faint sound of a alarm bell ringing could be suddenly heard in the distance. "...What's that?"

Fishlegs turned around in his seat to look through the rear window of the car. "I'm not sure, sounds like a security alarm," The ringing sound continued, but was soon accompanied by the distant sound of people yelling and screaming. "That doesn't sound good, we should probably get going…" He turned back around and noticed that the traffic light had turned green. "The light's green Hiccup," Instead of driving, Hiccup began to unbuckle his seat belt. "What are you doing? The light's green!"

"I have to go," He said turning and grabbing his helmet and leather jacket from the back seat.

Fishlegs looked back again as the cars behind them began to honk. "Are you seriously going over there? That's a job for the police!"

"Do you see any cop cars? Do you hear any sirens? Face it Fishlegs, the police have too much to handle as it is, they can't keep up with all the crime," Hiccup said opening up the glove compartment to reveal Toothless, asleep and snuggled inside a old wool mitten. He scooped Toothless up and plopped him into his pocket. "Somebody's got to help,"

"Was he there the whole time?!" Fishlegs exclaimed. "This is crazy!"

"Take the car back to your place, I'll come and get it later,"

"What? Hiccup!" Hiccup rushed around to the back of the car and opened up the trunk, where he retrieved a large duffle bag. Fishlegs shuffled over to the driver's seat and stuck his head out the window to watch. The cars behind them began to drive around his car and Hiccup quickly made his way across the street and over to the sidewalk. "Are you serious? Come back!"

Hiccup didn't listen, he just kept on walking, heading off towards the park. The further into the park he went, the louder the sound of the alarm could be heard, the sound was loud enough that most of the people in the park began to exit in the opposite direction, wary of what was causing the disruption. Hiccup was able to find a nice secluded area blocked off by some trees where he could suit up and let Toothless grow to his full size. As soon as they were both set up and ready to go, Hiccup took to the sky, soaring above many of the shorter buildings and getting a good vantage point of the commotion.

He saw the Royal Bank of Berk below, it was one of the larger bank's in the city, it was made of white stone and had great big white pillars out front. There weren't many people around, and the few that were were running off away from the bank. The doors were slightly ajar, and there was a faint trail of smoke trickling out. Just in front of the building there was a large black truck parked sloppily half on the sidewalk, half on the street. Hiccup's attention quickly returned to the doors as the sounds of two men yelling could be heard approaching from within. As they slammed through the open doors of the bank, black masks over their heads, each carrying two large duffle bags, one in either hand, the engine rumbled and revved, ready to drive away.

It was now or never, they quickly swooped down and Toothless shot out a blast down at the car, hitting it in the hood and destroying the engine. As the front of the car began to go up in flames, the man inside quickly dove out onto the sidewalk and gawked up at Toothless.

"What the helheim is that?!" One of the men cried out, dropping one of the bags to point upwards.

The man who had been inside the car scrambled to hit feet, grabbing the bag from the ground and starting to run down the sidewalk in the opposite direction. "Who cares! Run!"

They began to run down the street, bags in hand. No matter how fast they ran, they were no match for Toothless' flying speed and soon they were able to catch up and block the men from escaping. People screamed and ran from the scene, rushing to hide in buildings or behind cars. It wouldn't be long until the police arrived, all Hiccup has to do was keep them from getting away.

"This way!" One of the men yelled, making a dash for the subway entrance. He knew Toothless wouldn't be able to fit inside, there they would be home free. They weren't fast enough however, the heavy bags of cash weighed them down and made them run slowly. Toothless was able to leap into the air and land right by the stairs, blocking them again, this time letting out a monstrous roar as he did. That's when the sounds of police sirens could be heard approaching. "Lose the cash," He said, dropping his bag to the ground and dashing for the opposite subway entrance. One of the other men immediately followed suit, dropping his bags and following after.

"What? Are you kidding!?" The last man yelled to the others. "Fine! You can go fuck yourselves!" He yelled, grabbing one of the discarded duffle bags and rushing in the opposite direction.

Toothless jumped again, blocking the way of the last man. "Drop the bags," Hiccup ordered as Toothless growled menacingly at him. It was then that the police cars began to tear around the street towards them. Screeching to a halt only a few metres away. Hiccup smiled to himself, the other two men may have escaped, but at least he had managed to secure the stolen money.

"There! That's the monster!" Someone yelled to the police, pointing straight at Hiccup.

The officers all piled out of their cars and positioned themselves behind their doors, guns at the ready. "Put your hands in the air!" One officer yelled through a megaphone.

"Wait, I stopped the robbers!" Hiccup called out, waving his hands. It was to no avail, they couldn't hear him through his helmet from that far away, and even if they could, they probably wouldn't listen. The only thing they saw was a enormous monster, nothing else.

The man dropped his bags and put his arms in the air, lowering to his knees as he did. Hiccup and Toothless leapt back into the air and flew off into the sky, listening to the sounds of the police yelling for them to stop, and people's horrified shrieks.

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 **Thanks so much for reading, please remember to leave any comments, questions, concerns, or cries of anguish in the reviews for me to read, I love to hear what you guys think!**


	14. Chapter 14: Flightless Birds, Grow Wings

**Welcome back! Thanks for always being so patient with me and my slow-ass writing, I'm trying to spread out my writing time over my two current fics and my third upcoming one so I'm not really able to post frequently. This chapter has a little more focus on Heather, getting to understand her life a little more, and a little Hiccstrid in there as well. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading :)**

 **P.S.**

 **I wanted this chapter to be titled; Flightless Birds, Grow Your Wings!, but apparently that's too long so I had to change it :/ So just encase you're wondering, that's why the title below is different than the title in the drop-down box.**

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Chapter 14: Flightless Birds, Grow Your Wings!

The room she sat in was cramped and dreary to say the least. The walls were made of concrete and the table and chairs were made of hard cold steel. She sat there on of the chairs, impatiently drumming her fingers on the table, creating tapping sounds that echoed through the small room, a crumpled scowl covering her face. Heavy footsteps approached from outside and she could hear the ka-chunk sound the bulky metal door made as it unlocked and opened. An officer escorted him inside, seating him in the chair across from hers and locking his cuffed hands to a metal loop in the middle of the table.

"Would you like me to stay?" The officer asked.

She shook her head, keeping her glare on the man in front of her. "That's not necessary, thank you."

The officer gave a quick nod and shuffled out of the room, locking the door behind him as he went. Once alone, the two just stared at each other for a few moments, her eyes pierced holes in him as she stared, he stared back nervously, unsure of what to say. "I was just-"

"Don't even say it, I've already heard it a dozen times," She said, cutting him off. "I cannot even believe how stupid you are, robbing a bank? Are you serious?"

"It was going to work okay? The guys I'm working with now are top tier geniuses, the only reason we were caught was because of that night rider guy, if he hadn't shown up-"

"Stop! Just stop!" She yelled, covering her face with one hand. "You're seriously blaming this on the guy that caught you? Really?"

"I'm telling you, the plan this guy had was genius! It's not like those idiots I was working with before, they're really smart!"

"I'm not going to argue that they were smart, because they actually dropped the stolen money and ran away, unlike your dumbass!" She yelled back, standing up, hands on the table. "How many times do we have to go through this!?" He didn't reply, and she sunk back down into her chair with a sigh. "Just wait until dad hears about this, I'm sure he'll be _very_ pleased."

He shook his head. "Wait, wait, dad doesn't need to know about this, that's why I called you, can't we just keep this one from him?"

"No, we can't. Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in? Who do you think is going to have to pay for your lawyer? It certainly won't be me,"

"Heather, please," He begged.

She sighed again, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I've tried, Dagur. I've tried to help you stay out of trouble with dad for how many years now? I can't do this anymore, you need to stop this,"

"That's what I was trying to do, I just needed that money to get a fresh start, so I could clean up and start a new life, with you guys," He said.

Heather shook her head. "How many times have you said that to me?"

"This time it's different."

She stood up and gathered her things. "Listen, I have to go to work, I'm going to talk to dad about this tonight, hopefully we can get you a lawyer by the end of the week. Luckily you didn't have any guns on you this time, so they won't be able to charge you with armed robbery."

"Wait, Heather-"

"I don't have time to listen to your excuses right now, I have an actual job, Dagur, an actual life outside of bailing you out," She turned and knocked on the door. "Just do yourself a favour, don't talk to anyone until we get you a lawyer."

"Heather, come on!"

The door opened up with a ka-chunk and she walked out of the room without even giving him a second glance. Heather had too much on her mind already, she didn't have time to worry about her brother anymore, if he wasn't going to try to get his life back together, she was done trying as well. She speed walked down the sidewalk, weaving through the busy streets of downtown Berk. It was a short walk from the police station to her office at the Terror Mail building, which was good considering how often she had to make trips down there. She'd have to tell her father tonight, then they'd probably have to speak with a lawyer on what to do about the charges. Heather sighed just thinking about all the things she'd have to do, with all the crime in Berk it usually took a lot of pushing and a week or two to get a meeting with a decent lawyer.

* * *

The office was filled with warm orange light as the sunset's glow flowed in from the large floor to ceiling windows. Most of the staff had begun to pack up to go home, people stood around by the elevators chatting as they waited. Heather sat in her cubicle, starting at her screen with tired eyes, filing through her inbox. The newest email popped up at the top, _Oswald_ was the sender _Dagur_ was the subject line. She clicked on it, scanning over the words and only reading the important parts. " _You're being a good sister… I managed to get a meeting with a lawyer...we're seeing him tonight at 8:30...I know how busy you are with work...try to come if you can…"_ Heather mumbled under her breath as she skimmed through the email. Her eyes slowly trailed to the corner of her computer screen _6:08_ she still had time to finish up, even time to eat dinner and change before heading over to the police station. She clicked through her emails one by one, and cleared off her desktop, making sure to sign out before turning the screen off. As she began to pack away her things, someone walked past her cubicle and stopped right in front of Astrid's.

"Hey, Astrid, you're still working?"

"Yeah, just trying to finish this article up."

Heather could see the top of his head from over the cubicle wall, his hand brushed over his hair as he cleared his throat. "Listen, I was thinking of going down to have a drink tonight, did you want to come with?"

"Sorry, I'm really busy right now, I'm probably staying in late tonight."

"Of course, just let me know if you're ever interested in getting a drink."

"Sure, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you," He said before walking off towards the elevators.

Heather threw her jacket over her arm, grabbed her purse, and leaned on the side of Astrid's cubicle. "So you're staying late tonight?"

"I know you heard me," She replied, eyes still glued to her computer screen.

"You should've accepted his offer, he's actually pretty cute," She said peering over the cubicle walls to see him waiting at the elevators. "Isn't this like the third time you've turned him down?"

"I've got some stuff to finish, and I also have to meet you-know-who on the roof tonight remember?" Astrid said. "Besides, I'm not really interested."

"Not interested in him or not interested in dating?"

She shrugged. "A little of both I guess. Even if I wanted to, I don't have the time, I work too much and nobody wants a workaholic girlfriend."

"That's not true."

"Really? Don't you remember what happened with my last boyfriend?" Astrid asked turning to look at her friend. "He called me a cold selfish bitch."

Heather scoffed. "Yeah, he was a total asshole,"

"He wasn't exactly an outlier." She said, turning back to her computer. "Everybody thinks my job is super cool until they actually start dating me, then they don't like it so much."

"So, what, are you just going to stay single forever? Is that what you want?" Heather asked, walking around to the entrance of her cubicle.

Astrid looked over at her. "You're one to talk, when was the last date _you_ went on?"

"There's just a lot going on right now, I don't have the time."

"I see, so a completely different reason from mine right?"

Heather laughed and kicked Astrid's chair. "Shut up, I'll look for a boyfriend, eventually."

"Uh-huh."

"What are you writing about anyway?" She asked as she moved closer and leaned in to look at what Astrid was writing. "Oooh, another article about The Fantastic Night Fury? _And_ you're meeting him tonight? Guess things are going well."

She snickered and whacked Heather in the side. "Ha-ha, this time it's not even on purpose, Magnus asked me to write another one since the last one did so well, plus he can't seem to stay out of the news lately."

"Right, I heard he stopped two bank robberies this week, seems like he's really starting to cement himself as a full-fledged hero," She said nodding. "I hope he's as good as they say he is, you're counting on him to stop the outcasts after all."

"Speaking of which," Astrid said spinning her chair around to face Heather. "Is the tracker still active and moving? Or has it settled down yet?"

"It's still active, let me check if they're in the same location," Heather said taking her phone out of her pocket. "Well it's still in the same place as it was last night, they might have finally settled on a new hideout location."

Astrid stood up and walked over to where Heather was standing, so that she could look at the phone herself. "Where is it?"

"Right there," Heather said pointing at the screen. "On that small island near the east side of Berk."

She squinted her eyes and leaned in closer to get a better look at the screen. "That tiny thing? Why would they pick a dinky little island like that to build their base on? Is there anything even on that island?"

"I don't think so, it's too small for anyone to justify building a harbour on it, so it's been completely unused for a while now, that's probably what they like about it. Those idiots are probably thinking that no one will find them there," Heather said with a smirk.

Astrid smirked back. "Well they're going to be in for a rude awakening when we show up," She said as she returned to her desk chair. "Does this island even have a name? I should tell the Night Fury about it tonight."

"I suppose it does now," She said looking down at her phone. "...Outcast Island."

"That's a good name," Astrid chuckled, continuing to type at her computer. "I'm almost done here, if you want to come up with me we can tell him about it together, you know you're in this just as much as I am."

Heather shook her head and stuffed her phone back into her pocket. "That's alright, I've got some Important stuff to do tonight anyway, but maybe next time."

"Alright, suit yourself," Astrid said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

She nodded and waved goodbye. "Yeah, I'll see you."

As the sun slowly set it filled the office with darkness, leaving only a few cubicles lit up by the dim blue light of their computer monitors. Astrid continued typing as the last few people left the office, soon it was just her in a large empty office. With a sigh she typed the last period of her article, leaning back in her chair as she did, looking over her finished work with a smile. The Night Fury was a hero, for once in all her years writing about crime in Berk, she finally had something positive to write. She knew how people saw him, how people saw Toothless, and she knew she had to change it, make them see him like she saw him. Astrid rubbed her neck and looked down at the time on the computer, it was almost time for her to meet the Night Fury on the roof again. She signed out of her computer and shut it off, quickly grabbing her things before heading towards the elevator.

She clutched her jacket closer to her body as she stepped out onto the rooftop, the weather had begun to warm up slightly but it was still bitterly cold at night when the sun had set. At the edge of the roof, near the west side of the building stood the Night Fury, looking over the edge as Toothless lay down beside him. "You made it," She said, a puff of vapor releasing from her mouth as she spoke. He turned around to look at her as she approached. "Thought you might be too busy with all your crime-fighting."

"You heard about that?"

"You do know what my job is right?"

He laughed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Not only have I heard about your heroic deeds, I've already finished writing a article about it, should come out sometime tomorrow, given that my editor approves it."

"You wrote good things I hope?"

Astrid smiled and wrinkled her nose. "Oh no, I wrote only bad things, about what a terrible person you are, thwarting bank robberies, saving my life, _blech_."

"That's actually not too far off of what everyone else is saying," He said with a chuckle. "I'm glad at least one journalist is on my side."

"Don't worry, I'll get them to come around eventually," She said touching his arm. "What you're doing, it's really courageous. You're exactly what this city needs right now, even if nobody else can see it."

"Thanks," He said smiling behind his mask. "...Did you find anything on the hard drive?" Hiccup knew the answer to his own question, and he knew how she would respond, but still he asked, because he wasn't supposed to know, he wasn't supposed to be Hiccup.

Astrid shook her head. "Unfortunately the plans to the machine weren't on it, it was something else, some sort of molecule or something, I've got some people working on it as we speak,"

He nodded. "That's too bad."

"And I've got other news."

"Other news?"

"We've already tracked down their new hideout, it's located on a small island near the east side of Berk, maybe we can find the rest of the creatures and the machine's plans there,"

"Do you really think it's a good idea to just go barreling into their hideout again? They're probably on edge after what happened, we have to figure out a new tactic," Hiccup said. "If they catch you in there…"

"You don't have to worry about me."

"I _am_ worried though, even if you say they can't kill you, there are a lot of other things they could do, things I don't even want to imagine," He said. "There's got to be another way to find out if they're in there."

"Do you have something particular in mind?"

Hiccup paused in thought. He didn't know how to get in there, he just didn't want Astrid to have to go in again and he knew that if there were no better options he wouldn't be able to stop her. He wracked his brain for possible solutions, his mind naturally began to drift towards the one thing he was really good at, robotics. That was it, he had seen it while working at Gobber's lab, a tiny remote control robot, no larger than a ant, that was their solution. "A robot," He said. "You said you've used a tracking device right? Maybe you could get a robot and use it to see inside their hideout,"

"A robot?" Astrid scoffed. "Where on earth am I going to get a robot that can-" She paused and thought for a moment. _Hiccup._ "...Actually that just might work, I think I know someone that could help us out."

"That's great," He said. "Same time next week then?"

She nodded. "Sure…" He turned around and began walking back towards Toothless. "Wait, wait, there's just one thing I need to ask you."

Hiccup turned back around to face her. "What is it?"

"You said you were...from _there_ , right?" Hiccup reluctantly nodded. "Was there anyone else...more like you? Not like Toothless, but, human?"

"Human?" Hiccup asked. _She must be referring to Finn._ He thought to himself. "I don't think so."

Astrid took a step forward. "Are you sure? Never? She would be...tall, with long brown hair, blue eyes, a long face, no one like that?" Her description could only be about one person, and his chest clenched up as he listened, Astrid was describing his mother, Valka. Despite everything, despite her uncle being missing, she was still concerned about his mother, a mother who had been missing for decades, a mother who was most certainly dead, his mother, Hiccup's mother. He just stared at her for awhile in silence. "Night Fury?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm sorry."

Astrid sighed, her face dropped a little. "That's alright, I should've expected it."

"Are you alright?" He asked.

She looked at him with a sad smile. "I'm alright, but I really should get going, don't want to miss the last subway, I'll see you next week," She walked over to the roof's exit and grabbed onto the handle.

"Wait," Hiccup called out, "If you want, I can give you a ride back...I mean I already know where your house is, and it would be a lot faster."

"You don't have to worry about me."

"Do you ever get tired of saying that?"

Astrid laughed. "Not really."

"Come on, I want to give you a ride," He said, gesturing for her to come over with his head.

She opened her mouth to protest, but instead of saying anything, she just walked over to Toothless and climbed on after him. By now, having her ride on Toothless with him felt completely natural, like they had been doing it for a long time. They way her arms fit snugly around his waist, the way she leaned in and out with him, everything. Toothless wasn't an idiot, he could tell what was going on with Hiccup and he did his best to fly smoothly and slowly, passing all the prettiest parts of Berk and flying over the shoreline.

Astrid gently rested her chin on his shoulder as she looked over the silhouette of the city. "If only everyone else could see what I've seen, they'd understand that there's nothing to be afraid of," She said, moving one of her arms down to carefully stroke Toothless' side.

"You can make them see, you will make them," He said. "That's your job, what you're good at."

She chuckled softly into his shoulder. "It's good to know you have confidence in me."

"You're saying that like I didn't before, I always had confidence in you," He told her as Toothless swooped down onto the roof of her house.

Astrid couldn't help but blush a little, other than her parents and her uncle, nobody had ever said something like that so unabashedly to her. "Well it's good to hear it either way," She said climbing down off of Toothless, trying to hide her flushed cheeks. "Thank you."

"At this rate, you'll be using your roof more than your front door," He joked.

She shrugged. "Wouldn't bother me."

Hiccup cleared his throat awkwardly. "Right, well, I guess I'll see you next week then."

Astrid nodded as she unlatched the skylight and opened it up. "Yeah, I'll see you."

The two of them just stood there for a moment without saying anything, just looking at each other. Hiccup felt his heart rate quicken as he looked at her shadowy figure standing on the roof. _Gods she's even beautiful in the dark._ He thought to himself. "I should go then, bye," Hiccup finally said, Toothless leaped up into the air and flew off. From below, Astrid looked up at the darkness of the sky and smiled to herself before climbing through the skylight and back into her house.

The next few days would be quite busy, Astrid had a lot to get ready before the end of the week came. She sent out messages to everyone for a very important meeting, as always it would be held at the Black Sheep. Fishlegs and Hiccup came prepared, both knowing exactly what they were needed for as they shuffled through to the back of the restaurant. Neither one were expecting any surprises, least of all in an additional guest. Fishlegs stopped a few feet from the table, his eyes stopped to stare at the pretty raven-haired girl who was sitting next to Astrid in the booth. "Who's that?" He whispered to Hiccup.

Hiccup shook his head. "I don't know, I guess we'll find out," He said nudging Fishlegs towards the table.

Astrid looked up and smiled at them as they approached, both her and Heather stood up to greet them. "Thanks for coming on such short notice guys, we have some important stuff to discuss," They both nodded and looked over at Heather. "But first, this is Heather, she's been helping me with tracking the outcasts, and she's going to be working with us," Astrid said before looking over at Hiccup. "Heather this is Hiccup."

He shot her a crooked smiled and extended out his hand to shake hers. "Nice to meet you."

"Same here," She said.

Then Astrid turned to Fishlegs. "And this is Fishlegs."

Heather looked over at him, arm extended. "Hi Fishlegs."

He just stood there for a moment, awkwardly staring at her. "Oh, uh, yeah...nice to make your acquaintance, I'm Fishlegs...haha I guess she already said that…" He sputtered away, quickly shaking her hand and pulling away.

Heather smiled at him. "It's nice you meet you too."

* * *

 **Thanks again for reading, please leave any comments, questions, concerns, or cries of anguish in the reviews and I'll see you next time! Toodles!**


	15. Chapter 15: Thankless

**Heyo, sorry for the long wait, been working a lot more lately and it's been pretty tiring. I've been trying to motivate myself to write more when I get home rather than just collapsing on the couch like a lazy-butt. The trailer for the third movie definitely got me excited and writing, did everyone love the trailer as much as I did?**

* * *

Chapter 15: Thankless

Hiccup drummed his fingers on his desk, eyes darting back and forth across the computer screen in front of him as he slowly scrolled through pages and pages of information and plans. The design was great, innovative for certain, but it wasn't finished and it didn't have half the things he needed it to have. There was no camera, no microphone, and the wireless receiver was only for controls, adding all of that would take space, not to mention the additional battery power it would require with all that added on. Hiccup groaned, brushing a hand over his face as he leaned back in his chair. He had begun to regret suggesting it, he hadn't thought it through at the time, it was his quick solution to keep Astrid from trying to sneak back into the outcasts hideout, without it he wasn't sure what to do.

"Having trouble with something?" Hiccup turned around to find Gobber standing over him, a mug of hot coffee in his hand as he leaned over to look at the screen. "Ooh, that's the fly-bot they've been working on across the hall, you're getting into microrobotics Hiccup?"

"Sort of, I've been looking into it since I need something like this for my…" He cleared his throat. "My _side project_ ,"

Gobber's eyes widened slightly and he nodded his head slowly. "Right, right, and uh, what exactly are you looking for the fly-bot to do?" He asked.

"I need something like this but with a camera, preferably a microphone as well, but I _need_ a camera, and it can't just record with the camera, it has to have a video receiver, long distance,"

Hiccup could see Gobber's face tighten as he spoke. "That's a tall order, even for something twice the size,"

He sighed. "I know,"

"I mean that's what they're working towards, if they manage a breakthrough it could be done in maybe five or six months,"

Hiccup groaned. "I don't have five or six months,"

"Make it larger then,"

"The tech they're using that allows it to climb up walls won't work if it's too heavy, I've already done the math, if I try to add even the bare minimum of what I need it won't climb,"

"If you add a larger propeller it should still fly properly,"

"I can't fly it,"

"Why not?"

"It'll make too much noise, even with their current design it's too loud, if I add a larger propeller it'll be even noisier," Hiccup explained.

Gobber narrowed his eyes. "What exactly are you trying to use this robot for Hiccup?"

Hiccup looked over at the expression on his face and quickly shook his head. "Not that!"

"Not what?"

"Whatever it is you're thinking,"

"How do you know what I'm thinking is what you're doing?"

He crossed his arms. "So you're thinking I'm sending it into a criminal hideout to retrieve information about stolen alien lifeforms?"

"Well not _exactly_ that,"

Hiccup looked back at the screen and rubbed the back of his neck. "It needs to be small and quiet, otherwise it'll be discovered,"

Gobber stroked his beard in thought. "You might just be out of luck, I'm not aware of any robot that's able to achieve flight without some sort of noise, you'd probably have better luck training a hummingbird to carry a camera around for you," He said with a laugh.

Train a hummingbird? His brows furrowed at that thought, and suddenly the idea hit him, he didn't need to train a hummingbird, he had Toothless. Toothless could shrink, and climb, and fly, and do it all silently, all he needed to do what attach a camera to his back. Hiccup abruptly stood up, his chair clattering behind him as he did. "That's it!"

"What's it?"

He whipped himself around and gave Gobber a huge bear-hug, or as close to a bear-hug he could give, given their difference in size, and rushed off out of the lab in a frenzy.

"Uh, I was joking about the hummingbird!" Gobber called out as he ran.

Hiccup yanked his phone out of his pocket with one hand and unlocked his car with the other, hopping inside as he dialed Fishlegs' office number. He steered the car around and out of the parking lot one-handed as he pressed the phone to his ear, the dial tone ringing as he went. A automated voice came on, asking for a extension number, Hiccup cursed and dialed it in awkwardly, doing his best to keep his eyes on the road.

" _Fishlegs Ingerman,_ " The person answered in a flat, disinterested tone.

"Fishlegs it's me, I'm driving over now can you come out for a bit?"

There was some shuffling sounds and Fishlegs' tone became much more agitated. " _Hiccup? I'm at work right now, we can't be doing this right now,"_

"Just tell them you need to use the bathroom or something,"

" _You do realize I'm still on probation right? I just started this job and I'd really like to keep it,"_

"Fifteen minutes, tops,"

There was a groan. " _Fine, don't say I never did anything for you,"_ He said before abruptly hanging up the phone.

Hiccup continued, finally pulling up towards the large grey building, a large sign outfront had the words "Buffalord Pharmaceuticals" on it in large black letters. As he pulled around to the parking lot at the back of the building, he saw Fishlegs standing by the back entrance, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Hiccup parked by the door and stepped out of the car, getting out and walking towards Fishlegs.

"I take it you were able to figure something out with the tiny robot that Astrid wanted?" Fishlegs asked.

Hiccup shook his head. "Not exactly, I came up against some roadblocks, but I think I may have another solution,"

Fishlegs eyed his friend. "And…?

"And I need your help with it,"

He pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes. "Somehow I can already tell that I'm not going to like this,"

"I want to send Toothless in instead,"

"Wha-" Fishlegs unfolded his arms and jerked his head back in disbelief. "Hiccup I thought your whole plan was to keep the dragons out of danger, not put them in it. Why were you so against Astrid going in if you're okay sending Toothless?"

"Wait, just think about it for a second okay?" He said holding a hand up. "Toothless can be the size of a mouse, he's completely black, completely silent, he can climb fast, run fast, and fly fast, there's no way they'll be able to catch him. All we have to do is strap a micro camera to his back,"

Fishlegs shook his head. "He's not a person Hiccup, at best he's an animal, how are you going to control him in there? Are you going to put a tiny microphone in his ear?"

"He's smart, he can do this,"

"Even if that were true, he can't fly while he's small he's in a weakened state, and you want his to run around with a camera on his back? It's not going to work,"

Hiccup nodded. "Right, that's what I need you for," He pulled out a bottle with the enlargium pills inside. "We need a diluted version of the molecule that will give him strength without changing his size," Toothless climbed out from inside Hiccup's jacket and onto his arm, to see what the noise was about.

"That's-" He sighed. "That's not possible, from what I saw there's no way to give him more strength without changing his size, the dragons store it,"

"You can't take another look? You have access to a whole pharmaceutical lab, there's got to be something that you can figure out," Hiccup insisted, as Toothless crept further down his arm and towards his hand.

"I'm telling you, it's not possible, they collect it in their bodies and when they want to change size they use it like a switch, it's not about how much or how we give it to them," Fishlegs explained.

"There's just got to be- Toothless no!" Toothless popped the lid off of the bottle and grabbed a pill with his mouth and they both watched in horror as he swallowed it in one big gulp. Hiccup grabbed the lid and quickly popped it back on.

"Why did he do that? We're in a public place!" He cried out, grabbing his own hair.

Hiccup shook his head. "I don't know, he's never done this before," He glanced around the parking lot, there was noone to be seen, "There's nobody here, maybe we can hide him somewhere,"

Fishlegs looked around frantically. "Where? There's nowhere to hide him!"

"Wait…wait, look at him!"

"What?"

"Look at him," They both looked down at Toothless, who was still just sitting there on Hiccup's arm. "He hasn't started growing yet, shouldn't he be growing by now?"

"How am I supposed to know? You've seen it happen more than I have!"

Hiccup stared at Toothless who stared back up at him, then giving him a gummy smile. "He's controlling it…"

"He's what? How?" Fishlegs asked looking back and forth between Hiccup and Toothless.

"I don't know...he's just...doing it, I guess he could all along…" He said staring at Toothless in awe. "This is perfect, now all I have to do is tell Astrid and we can go ahead with the plan!" He quickly turned to go back to his car.

Fishlegs grabbed his arm and pulled his back. "Wait, wait, you can't tell her as Hiccup remember? You have to tell her as The Night Fury,"

"I can't, I already told her to do the robot thing as The Night Fury, I can't just suddenly change my mind...maybe we can suggest it together, we knew about the dragons being able to shrink, it wouldn't be strange for us to bring that up," Hiccup said. "Then she would tell me as The Night Fury and I could confirm the idea,"

He furrowed his brows in thought. "So, let me get this straight, you as Hiccup are going to tell Astrid to talk to you as The Night Fury to confirm a theory you as Hiccup made so that she can tell you as Hiccup to make a tiny wireless camera to give to you as The Night Fury for Toothless, so we can all work to infiltrate the outcasts hideout?"

Hiccup nodded while wobbling his head side to side. "Yeah, that sounds about right,"

"Well if Toothless is the one going in then The Night Fury will have to be there,"

"Yeah,"

"Don't you see the problem here?" Hiccup just stared at Fishlegs blankly. "She's going to expect you as Hiccup and you as The Night Fury to be there, you're the robotics guy and you're the guy with the dragon, only as two different identities," He explained moving his arms back and forth for emphasis.

Hiccup narrowed his eyes. "Hmmmm, yeah...that might be and issue…"

"One of you is going to have to bail,"

"What? Ugh, this is not going to go over well with her," Hiccup said rubbing this bridge of his nose. "I can already hear her scolding me...well obviously The Night Fury _has_ to be there, so it's got to be me as Hiccup who bails. I'll just have to brief you on the controls beforehand, you think you can do it on your own?"

Fishlegs nodded. "I think so,"

"Alright, great, so I'll just go and- wait what was the first one again?"

"You talk to Astrid as Hiccup,"

He snapped his fingers. "Right, right, okay I'll see you later Fish," He then turned around and walked back to his car.

* * *

"This is...he's amazing, I had no idea he could control it like this," Astrid said, watching as Toothless, still in is small form, flew around her head in circles. She moved a hand up and he landed on her extended index finger, climbing up her arm and onto her shoulder where he snuggled up against her face, she giggled and tensed her shoulders in response.

Hiccup smiled, though she couldn't see it through his helmet. "Yeah, neith-" He coughed and cleared his throat. "He is isn't he? What you told me about...what was his name again?"

"Hiccup," She replied, looking up at him.

"Yes, right, well what you told me of Hiccup's plan, it seems like sending Toothless in would be the best plan, he'd be able to get in and out unnoticed no problem,"

Astrid raised a hand up towards him. "It's a good plan but we don't have to do it if you don't think it'll work, you know Toothless better than anyone else, I can always go in instead so-"

"No, no, he can handle it, really," He said shaking his head. Toothless jumped and flew off of Astrid's shoulder and back onto his. "And besides, you going in on your own again, I just don't think that would be a good idea, they'll be on edge after you managed to break in the first time. It's not safe,"

She nodded. "Alright, looks like we have a plan, well, most of a plan," She said. "Do you have a way to guide Toothless while you're not there, I know he's intelligent but, he's not psychic, or is that another power he has?"

Hiccup laughed. "No, he's not psychic, not as far as he's told me, is there anything you want to tell me bud?" He asked, cupping his ear and leaning towards the dragon. "No? Okay, no," Astrid shook her head as she smiled, stifling a laugh. "Well I'm glad someone likes my jokes,"

She cocked an eyebrow. "Do you even talk to anyone other than me?"

"Ooh, I see, you just _assume_ you're special and that I only talk to you," He said sarcastically, putting both his hands in the air.

Astrid crossed her arms. "Well?"

Hiccup shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, pretty much," _At least as The Night Fury anyway_. "But I do actually have a way to possibly direct him when we're apart,"

"A tiny earpiece?" She joked.

"A laser pointer,"

Astrid furrowed her brows. "A laser pointer?"

"I've been getting him used to following a laser pointer around, I think if Hiccup can figure out a way to attach a moving laser pointer that can be controlled by remote, we can use that to guide Toothless," He explained. "Do you think he can do that?" _I can, I've already drawn out the blueprints_ Hiccup thought to himself.

"Probably, I'll have to talk to him again, and thank him for the idea,"

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, say thanks from me too,"

"Well you can thank him when we implement the plan, you two will finally be able to meet then," Astrid said. "And you'll have another person to tell jokes to, he's got a similar sense of humor, I think you'll like each other,"

"Haha, yeah...yeah I think so too…" Hiccup said awkwardly.

"There's also Fishlegs and Heather, it's a great team, I know we can do this. When do you think Toothless will be ready to strike?"

"Pretty soon, maybe next-" A loud bang interrupted him, it echoed from the street below and they both rushed to the edge of the roof to see what the noise was about. From the Terror Mail building they could see straight down at the street where three blocks away a masked figure had thrown a molotov cocktail into one of the shops window's, setting a fire inside. "I have to help," Hiccup said quickly, turning to look at Toothless as he hopped off of his shoulder and began growing rapidly. With fast and skillful hands he attached Toothless' saddle and climbed on. Astrid immediately grabbed on and pulled herself up behind him. "Astrid you-"

"Don't think that because you saved me twice before means that I'm just a damsel,"

"I would never-"

"I appreciate your concern for me, but if we're going to work together, if we're going to be partners, you have to trust that I can take care of myself, now stop wasting time and get down there,"

Hiccup didn't say another word, he knew better than to argue with her when she had made up her mind about something. Astrid was no ordinary girl, she never had been, and as much as he wished she wouldn't be so daring all the time, it was this part of her that he liked the most.

Toothless leapt into the air and dove down towards the street below, Astrid clinging to Hiccup's back tightly as they rushed downwards. With a graceful swoop they landed only a few metres from the shop and the figure, who upon seeing them turned and dashed off in the opposite direction. There were screams as people ran away from the scene, and even more screams emanating from inside the burning shop, the flames spreading quickly.

Astrid jumped off of Toothless and looked back at them. "You get as many out as you can, I'll cash after him!"

"Wait- you-!" Hiccup called out.

"Your body is fully covered, and Toothless is fireproof, we don't have time to argue about it!" She yelled before turning to run after him at an impressive speed. She was right, they didn't have time to argue, he was better off in the fire, and she was faster than he was.

Hiccup jumped down and he and Toothless rushed into the fire frantically searching for the source of the screams. They followed the sounds until they reached a beam blocking a back door. "Toothless, blast it!" Hiccup yelled over the sounds of the roaring flames, his lungs were beginning to burn from the smoke. Toothless sent out a blast that smashed through both the beam and the door, leaving a charred hole in its place. The people screamed as the door blasted away, there were four of them, all crowded together in the back kitchen area. "Let's go!" He called to them, gesturing for them to follow him, they hesitated for a moment, staring at the huge creature before them, but ran out anyway, covering their faces with the collars of their shirts. As they all ran, coughing and wheezing, Toothless shielded them from the flames with his wings until they were finally able to make it back out to the street.

Hiccup looked around at the now empty streets, he didn't see Astrid anywhere and began to worry if she had been able to subdue the culprit. He could hear the sounds of sirens in the distance and wondered if they were heading towards the fire, he motioned for Toothless, climbing onto his back and flying down the road where she had run after him. It didn't take long for him to find her, she had caught up to him just a block down in an alleyway. He let out a sigh of relief as he saw her holding him onto the ground, her knee on his back as she held his right arm twisted behind him. Hiccup dismounted and approached her, she looked up at him as he did and smiled.

"You're alive," She said with a smirk.

Hiccup looked down at himself and patted his body all over in a joking manner. "I am? Looks like it, I guess you'll be stuck with me a little longer,"

"Still worried about me?"

He shrugged. "I mean, I'm always worried about you,"

The thug groaned, eyes turning away from them. "Ugh, get a room…" He muttered.

Astrid twisted his arm back more and he let out a cry of pain, cursing under his breath. "Shut up, that was really sweet," She said to him.

Hiccup just blushed and turned away, he couldn't believe he just said that, he couldn't believe that she actually liked it. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Uhmm, I heard sirens back there, the police should be here soon to take him into custody,"

"You should go," She said looking over at him.

"And just leave you here with him?"

Astrid smirked. "Don't worry, he's not going anywhere, and besides, I don't think the police will be thrilled to see you here. I'll talk to the others, you know where to find me,"

Hiccup watched her hesitantly for a moment, then nodded, climbed back onto Toothless, and flew off into the sky, slowly fading into the darkness. Astrid watched his silhouette until it disappeared, she looked back down to the ground, her cheeks twinged with pink. The police cars and firetruck arrived soon after, taking the culprit into the custody and caring for the people who had escaped from the fire.

Astrid leaned against a wall with a blanket slung over her shoulders as police swarmed the area, checking for any other explosives and questioning bystanders. Snotlout approached her, his thumbs in his police belt. "Witnesses said you were with him,"

"Did they,"

"Do you know who he is?"

She looked up and glared at him. "If I did I wouldn't tell you,"

"You realize that what you're doing could be considered obstruction of justice right?" Snotlout replied frowning.

Astrid crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. "Then charge me,"

"Astrid,"

"He's _saving_ people, everyone in that shop would've died had he not been here, what exactly about that is a problem with you? Or can you just not stand it when someone else shows you up?"

"This isn't a personal issue,"

"Then what is it?"

"He's breaking the law, and I'm a police detective, what do you want me to do, just ignore him?"  
"Yes, ignore him, your father is the police chief Snotlout, talk to him and convince him that trying to hunt down The Night Fury isn't good for anyone," Astrid said, her voice slowly getting louder and more heated. "Or is that too much for your pride to handle?"

"You don't know him like I know him!" Snotlout yelled back. "Do you have any idea the pressure he's put on me? If I try and bring this to him now there's no way he'll accept it, he knows it's going to make the BPD look like a joke, and we're already being heavily criticized as it is,"

"Are you serious?" She asked moving closer to him. "You're concerned about the police station's reputation right now? This city is flooded with crime like it's never been and you'd rather hunt down the one person actually doing something to stop it!"

"It's not what I want, it's my-"

"Yeah, your dad," Astrid said bitterly, pulling the blanket off of herself and throwing it at him. "Keep telling yourself that, Snotlout,"

* * *

 **Thanks so much for reading, I hope you liked it and if you want leave any comments, questions, concerns, or cries of anguish in the reviews and I'll see you next time! (Hopefully soon) Bye!**


	16. Chapter 16: Unexpected Rescue

Wow two chapters in the same month, can't even remember that last time I was able to accomplish that! Let's hope I can keep up this momentum at least for a little while, anyway, please enjoy!

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Chapter 16: Unexpected Rescue

Astrid stepped into the living room, a scrap of toast hanging from her mouth as she shuffled through the various papers scattered about the dining room table. The TV murmured in the background, a weatherman giving the daily forecast. She grabbed a folder, her keys, and her wallet, stuffing them all away into her purse before moving towards the couch, where her jacket had been draped. Astrid took it and threw it over her arm, reaching for the remote she pointed it towards the television and stopped as the news reports began to play.

" _Last night was reported as the fifth attempted bank robbery in Berk this month, of the five, this has been the second successful attempt, with the robbers making it out with under one thousand dollars in cash and valuables, though the number may change as investigators are still looking into the details. Many have been criticizing the BPD as with the recent rise in bank robberies they have yet to stop any, the three failed attempts only stopped because of the creature-riding vigilante known to the public as 'The Fantastic Night Fury'. Though officials are still calling this man a criminal, many concerned civilians are beginning to call him a hero."_ Astrid smiled as she listened to the news report, slowly chewing up her last piece of toast. " _Only one culprit has been caught in connection with the attempted robberies and some speculate based on similarities in the techniques used that there is a co-"_ Her phone began to ring, loudly interrupting the newscaster, she quickly switched the TV off and threw the remote back onto the couch, before rummaging through her purse to pull out her cellphone.

"Hello?" Astrid answered as she walked towards the door. "Oh, Hiccup," she said as she grabbed a boot and slipped it on, doing the zipper all the way to the top. There was a long pause, and her previously calm expression began to slowly melt into something more akin to rage. "You what?!" Astrid cried out, as she stood in her entrance hall, phone pressed between her ear and her shoulder, a coat and a bag hanging from her arm, one boot on her foot, the other in her hand. "We're doing this today, you couldn't think of a better time to tell me this?" she asked as she glanced down at her watch.

" _I know, I'm sorry, something came up at work and I have to be there right now."_

She pulled on her other boot with one hand while hopping to keep her balance. "Why didn't you schedule the day off? I told you about this a week ago, we need you there to control everything! You have all the equipment!" The sounds of moving air could be heard in the background. "Are you driving right now? How early did they call you in?"

" _Yes, I dropped off the equipment with Fishlegs, he already knows how to use everything, if you need anything else you can text me."_

"Have you forgotten that you're the only one who knows how to identify the blueprints? Without you, we have no means to find them!"

" _I asked Gobber, he said he could go in my place, he's been studying the plans remember? Honestly, with all his experience he'll probably be more helpful than I ever could be."_

"Why is Gobber free when you're not? Isn't he your boss?"

" _The head of the research department is my boss, and there are multiple projects going on here, the one they need me for isn't involved with Gobber's research,"_ Hiccup explained, though none of it was true, of course she didn't know that.

Astrid groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alright, alright, that'll work I guess."

" _Look, I'm really sorry, I know I said I'd be there, but work really needed me today, it was unavoidable."_

"Yeah, okay, I know, and I know you have a job and a life outside of all this but when you make a commitment to something, something so _important_."

" _I know, I'm sorry...I swear, if I could be there, I would be there."_

Astrid sighed. "Alright, well try and-" There was a thump sound as something landed on the roof, she smiled and looked upwards, pulling on her jacket on and moving towards the stairs. "Hiccup, I have to go, keep your phone close by okay?"

" _Of course,"_ he replied. " _I'll see you later."_

"Bye," Astrid said, hanging up the phone as she walked up the stairs and towards the upper hallway, where the skylight was. She shuffled a plant to the side of the hall table and climbed on top of it, reaching up to unlatch and open the skylight. Above her she could faintly see the silhouette of Toothless' head peak out in the darkness, his large glowing eyes looking down at her. "Hello there," she said with a giggle. Hiccup stood just out of view, he popped his phone into his pocket and closed the visor on his helmet with a soft click. The Night Fury appeared from behind Toothless, and he knelt down, reaching out a hand for her to grab. Astrid took it and used it to pull herself up and onto the roof of her house. "I didn't know I was getting a personal escort."

He shrugged. "It was on the way, so I thought I'd save you the trip over," he lied, she wasn't on route, he had just wanted to see her. "Toothless is faster anyway."

Astrid smiled. "Well it beats taking the bus, that's for sure, my bike's been in the shop and I've not been enjoying the daily commutes."

He took a step back, bowing slightly as he gestured towards Toothless' saddle. "After you, milady." She giggled as she stepped forward and climbed onto Toothless, Hiccup soon followed, clipping the bungee cord to his belt. "Here, I added another for you," he said as he handed her a second cord attached to the saddle. "You can clip it to your belt."

"Thank you. Did you get this on the way over as well?" Astrid asked him.

"What? No, I- I got this earlier, not earlier today, earlier this week," he explained frantically. "I thought I should, you know, since you've been riding on Toothless so often and I didn't want you to fall off or anything-"

She smiled and shook her head. "I was only teasing you, Night Fury."

He cleared his throat awkwardly and signalled for Toothless to take off, without saying anything. Hiccup silently cursed at himself, when he was the Night Fury that's when he was supposed to be cool, all the dorkiness that was Hiccup was supposed to be gone, at least for a little while. Still, Astrid didn't seem to care, and really who was he to argue with that? For once in his life, he felt like maybe he had a chance with her, and he wasn't going to screw it up. The sun began to peak ever so slightly above the horizon during their short flight over, the city below was still quiet and there were almost no people on the streets.

"There," Astrid said from behind him. "It's right down there." She pointed down towards a small residential building, a few blocks from the river. "Land in that alley to the side of the building."

They swooped down and landed gently into the alley, the building was old, one of the few buildings in Berk that had managed to stay standing for over a decade. Gentrification had swept through many of the neighbourhoods, demolishing and rebuilding most of the structures in the city.

Astrid climbed down and took her phone out, sending a quick text message to Heather. "They're here already, Toothless you should-" Before she could even finish she turned to find Toothless shrinking rapidly, a funny smile on his face as his teeth retracted back into his mouth. She smiled at him, tucking her phone away. "Thank you."

Hiccup crouched to the ground and began packing up Toothless' fin and saddle into a duffle bag, once finished, Astrid looked to him and pointed to the front, and they both quietly walked around to the entrance of the building where Heather came to let them inside.

As they entered, Heather looked over the Night Fury cautiously, a sly smile slowly spreading across her face. She turned to Astrid and gave her a light nudge with her elbow. " _Nice_."

Astrid smiled and shook her head. "Stop it," she said playfully.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Night Fury," Heather said, clearing her throat.

He nodded. "Same here."

"This is Heather, I mentioned her a few times before."

"What is this place?" Hiccup asked, looking around as they headed towards the elevators.

"It's an old apartment complex, scheduled to be knocked down a little more than a week from now, normally there'd be a bunch of squatters in here but police always go through and scare them all out two weeks before demolition, standard practice," Heather explained, as he tried to press the elevator button. "No power in here, we'll have to take the stairs," she explained pointing towards the stairwell doors.

They all began heading up the dark winding stairs, Heather took out a small flashlight and used it to check each floor as they went, making sure they didn't pass their stop. "Everyone else is here?" Astrid asked.

"Fishlegs is, but Hiccup isn't," she said, her voice echoing as she spoke. "He sent me a message saying some guy named Gobber was to come instead, do you know him? It was only a text so I wasn't sure if it was genuine or not."

"Yeah I know him, don't worry he's trustworthy."

"Here," Heather said, shining her flashlight at the floor number, number fourteen. She stepped forward and opened the door, holding it for them as they walked into the hallway. There was a ping as Astrid's phone lit up in the dark. "What is it?"

She looked down at the screen. "It's Gobber, he's here."

"Don't worry, I'll go get him, the room is right down there, fourteen-eleven," Heather said before letting the door shut behind her, the sounds of her descending footsteps could be heard echoing down.

Astrid used her phone as a light, checking each room one by one until they got to the end of the hall where fourteen-eleven was. She tried opening the door and found it to be locked, giving it a soft knock she whispered with her face close to the door. "Fishlegs it's me, open up."

There were some rattling noises and footsteps until finally the door slowly creaked open. Fishlegs stood in the room, he looked at Astrid first, then his eyes drifted up to Hiccup. He cleared his throat and jerked the door open wider to let them in. "Where's Heather?" He asked.

"She went to get Gobber, you have all the equipment with you?" He nodded and led her towards the other side of the room where the window was, a small table had been set up with various screens and computers on it, and there was a small telescope beside the window. "Where're the parts for Toothless?"

Fishlegs looked towards Hiccup then back to Astrid. "...Toothless?"

"Oh, of course, Toothless is the dragon," she said turning to the Night Fury. "This is The Fantastic Night Fury, and Toothless is there on his shoulder, he's in his smaller size right now."

Hiccup walked forward and extended a hand out to Fishlegs. "It's nice to meet you."

"Yes, nice to meet you too," he replied, shaking his hand, eyes shifty and nervous. "Did you, uh, want to let your dragon down on the table here? I can put the camera on him."

He nodded and Toothless climbed down Hiccup's arm and gracefully leapt from his hand to the table. Fishlegs moved in and began carefully placing the small camera and transmitter onto Toothless' back, delicately tightening each tiny strap in place, making sure nothing was loose. Toothless kept very still until it was finished, and then slowly moved around to get used to the weight of it.

"I'm surprised you're so calm Fishlegs, this is your first time seeing something like Toothless right?" Astrid asked him. "You should see him when he's full size, he's huge!" she said gesturing with her arms.

"Haha, yeah...I guess I'm braver than I thought I was…" Fishlegs said with an awkward laugh.

Hiccup approached the window and looked out, all of the other buildings were much newer and taller than the one they were in, but it was in a position where it had a view right between two larger buildings where they could see the river and outcast island. "How did you find this place?"

"Heather found it actually, she's been writing about Berk's real estate market for a while so she knows this city pretty well," Astrid explained. "I've got to hand it to her, this location was perfect; it's not too close to the river, but it's still within range of the transmitter, plus the island is in our direct line of sight."

Before Hiccup could open his mouth to reply, there was a quiet knock at the door, and Fishlegs walked over to unlock it for them. Heather and Gobber both entered together, Gobber's eyes quickly scanned the room until they came to find the Night Fury. "You weren't kidding, it's really him? Where's the dragon?" he asked looking over the room again.

"He's over here," Astrid said, letting Toothless climb onto her hand so she could bring him to Gobber. "He's in his smaller form right now, this is how we're going to get into their hideout without being detected."

Gobber ogled Toothless with wide curious eyes. "This is amazing...and he's intelligent?"

"Very, as much as you or me," Hiccup said taking a step forward. He looked over at Gobber and reached out to shake his hand. "I'm The Night Fury."

Gobber took his hand a shook it vigorously. "You certainly are, I'm Gobber, I had to come in place of Hiccup, I'm sure you'll meet him soon enough though," he said grinning.

"Yeah, probably…"

Astrid moved over to the window and looked through the telescope and out at outcast island. "We should get going soon, the sooner we get Toothless in there the sooner we can get him out again, is he ready?" she asked turning to look over at the others.

Hiccup took Toothless from Gobber and looked over him, making sure that Fishlegs had correctly attached all of the equipment, everything seemed in place so he nodded. "He looks ready to go."

Heather walked over to the monitor that they had set up and sat down in front of it. With a few clicks, she turned the camera on, and the monitor fizzled to life, the black and white image popped up on the screen. "The camera's working, I'll check the laser pointer…" she said grabbing a small controller and clicking it on, the laser shot out of a small light on Toothless' back and she was able to point it in various directions with the small joystick attached to it. "And it works too, I think we're ready to go, open the window," she said looking over at Fishlegs who unlatched the front window and opened it a crack.

Hiccup approached holding Toothless in his hands, he brought him up to his face and whispered to him. "You can do this, bud." Toothless cooed in response and he brought his hands up to the edge of the window, allowing Toothless to climb out through the crack and fly down towards the river.

Astrid kept her eye to the telescope, moving it ever so slightly as she followed Toothless' movements. "I see him, he's almost there," she said as she watched him.

"The video is clear," Heather said nodding. "Come and take a look."

Everyone shuffled over and crowded around the small monitor to watch. The quality wasn't amazing but they could see the island quite well as Toothless approached the small building. It was an old looking building, one that looked like it hadn't been used in years, by the signs and equipment scattered about it seemed that it had been a boat rental shop, but it was in terrible condition. The island was so small that it undoubtedly flooded often, and the way the building looked it appeared that it had only been half-finished before it was abandoned completely. While most of the structure looked extremely old, there were some repairs here and there that looked very recent, the new wood and metal used shined like gold in comparison to the rest of it. Toothless swooped around the building, looking for somewhere to get inside, he began descending towards a window well. There, through the cloudy, spotted glass was a small office looking room, it had shelves around the walls and a large desk with a man sitting at it. The man faced away from the window, but from behind Astrid could tell who it was, his large frame and ratty black hair was enough to give him away.

"That's Alvin there," she whispered. "This must be his office...the files could be somewhere in this room."

"Where do you think it would be?" Fishlegs asked scanning the screen over carefully.

Heather leaned in and pointed at something on the screen. "There…" she mumbled. "That looks like a safe doesn't it? Maybe that's where it is," she said pointing at what looked like a small safe at the bottom of one of the shelves.

Hiccup nodded. "That does look like a safe."

Alvin stood up from his desk, and shuffled out of the room, shutting the door behind him. "Now, use the laser pointer and tell him to go inside the room," Astrid said.

Heather grabbed the controller and pointed the laser towards the shelf, Toothless fired a tiny blast at the window, cracking it just enough for him to break open a small hole that he could climb through. Inside the room, he flew down towards the bottom of the shelf and landed on the floor, there in front of him was indeed a small safe, or from his perspective, a very large one.

"Uh…does anyone have any idea how to get that open now?" Fishlegs asked looking around.

Gobber shrugged. "If I was there and had the right tools I probably could, but I can't do it from here, I mean it's all about the clicks, and there's no audio."

"He can't blast it open?" Astrid asked. "He did it with the window."

"The stronger the blast, the louder the sound it makes, I'm not sure if someone would hear him," Hiccup explained.

"Guys he's moving," Heather said, and everyone turned back to look at the screen again.

Indeed, Toothless had begun to climb up the shelf at an impressive speed. "What's he doing?"

He continued up until he reached the top of the shelf where the opening to an air vent was located. Toothless blasted a hole in the vent cover and climbed through, running forward through the dusty vents.

Astrid turned to the Night Fury. "Do you know what he's doing?"

Hiccup shook his head. "No, I don't...maybe he heard or smelled something? I'm not sure…"

Toothless made a turn in the vents and continued on until finally he reached another vent opening and peered through the slits of the cover into what appeared to be a small lab. There was a man inside, he crouched over a small table, his back to the camera as he worked on something they couldn't yet see. Toothless paced back and forth in front of the vent cover. Eventually, the man moved away from the table and revealed another small dragon, it wasn't quite the same as Toothless was, but it was undoubtedly a dragon. It was brown and bulbous with darker brown bumps all over it's body, it's wings were similar to Toothless' but much, much smaller. The dragon did not look like it was in good shape, it's body was all curled up on itself and it trembled on the metal table while surrounded by strange instruments.

"Another one?" Gobber asked aloud.

"What's wrong with it?" Heather asked looking around at the others. "It looks sick."

Hiccup's face fell at the sight of the tiny dragon. "They're...experimenting on it?" he said not quite as a question, but not quite as a statement.

The man returned to the table, once again blocking their view of the dragon. Fishlegs backed away from the monitor and looked out the window. "We have to do something, we can't just leave it in there, they're torturing it!"

"Toothless can't do anything while that guy is still in there," Astrid said. "If we want to save it we have to distract him somehow." she looked around the room and grabbed her bag and a set of binoculars before hurrying towards the door.

Hiccup rushed after and grabbed her arm. "Where are you going?"

"I'm what they're after if they see me maybe they'll be distracted long enough for Toothless to get that dragon out of there," she told him.

He just looked at her for a moment without speaking. "...I'll come with you."

Astrid nodded and they both ran out the door, down the stairs, and back onto the street. She began running full speed down the street towards the river, Hiccup did his best to keep up with her, but he inevitably lagged behind slightly, Astrid was always a good runner. Once she reached one of the taller buildings right by the river she stopped and waved him over. "Here!" she called out as he caught up.

"Why…are…" he spoke through gasps. "We…going in….here?"

"They'll be suspicious if I just run over to the river and start waving my arms, but if we get to the top of a building and pretend to spy on them maybe they'll send some men to try and grab us," she said knocking on the glass door of the building, the man at the security desk walked over and opened the door for her. "I'm so sorry sir," she said to him, her voice suddenly sounding much softer and more effeminate than it usually did. "My brother and I lost our keys this morning and I just need to go get my spare, it's upstairs."

"I'm sorry ma'am, we're really not supposed to-"

"I know, but I really can't be late for work and it's just once, I'll owe you a favour, please?" Astrid said, her blue eyes staring intently at him.

"Well, I…"

She touched his arm and smiled at him. "I won't tell anyone, I know you're very good at your job, I see you here all the time."

"You do?"

"Of course."

He glanced around at the empty lobby and nodded. "Alright, only this once," he said opening the door and letting them both in. "But don't make a habit of it."

"Of course not, thank you so much," Astrid said as she led Hiccup into one of the elevators and pressed the button for the roof.

He turned to look at her awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "You don't do that a lot do you?"

"What? Flirt?"

"Yeah."

She shrugged. "Only in emergencies."

"Oh."

"Why? Does it bother you?"

Hiccup could feel his face heating up. "What? No, no I was curious that's all."

The elevator pinged as it reached the top floor, and the doors slid open. They rushed out into the hallway and down towards the big shiny doors that led to the rooftop area. Astrid pulled out her binoculars and crouched down at the edge of the roof, looking out at the island. She took her phone and dialled Heather's number without looking away from outcast island. "I'm at the top of one of the river-side buildings, it shouldn't be long now, this spot is completely visible. If they're not complete idiots they'll notice pretty quickly. "

The sound of Heather letting out a short laugh could be heard. " _Yeah, well, let's not get our hopes up."_

Hiccup crouched down beside her and looked out at the building on the island. "I think someone's coming out, look to the east side," he said pointing.

Astrid moved her head slightly. "You're right- I think someone spotted us, what do you see on the screen?"

" _Nothing, he's still- wait, hold on someone else came in...they're leaving together, I think it worked! Fishlegs turn on the laser,"_ There was a long pause where no one spoke, and Astrid watched as more and more men began exiting and moving towards the back of the building where she couldn't see them. " _He got it! Toothless got it, he's carrying the dragon back now!"_ Heather exclaimed.

Astrid moved both the phone and the binoculars away from her face and turned towards the Night Fury. "We did it, Toothless got the dragon out," she said to him, a wide grin spreading across her face.

Hiccup's face lit up and he lunged forward to pull Astrid into a hug. She was shocked for a second, but quickly returned the gesture and wrapped her arms around him. For a moment, Hiccup held her not thinking about anything but the dragon, but then he realized what he was doing, where he was, and he quickly pulled away. "Sorry," he mumbled quickly.

She laughed. "You don't have to apologize."

"Well, I shouldn't have…" he cleared his throat awkwardly, turning away. A deep blush came over him, and he was glad she couldn't see it.

Astrid placed her hands on his shoulders, causing him to look towards her again. "Really...you don't have to apologize," she said, leaning in and giving the front of his helmet a kiss. When she leaned back out her kiss had left a smudge mark on the glass. She looked at the smudge and then back up at him. "Sorry."

Hiccup smiled. "You don't have to apologize."

The faint sound of Heather's muffled voice could be heard and Astrid suddenly remembered that she was still in the middle of a phone call. She put the phone against her ear. "Sorry, I'm here, what's up?"

" _You might want to get out of there, we can see them taking a motorboat over to the river bank, if they get there before you get down they'll be able to corner you in the building."_

Astrid looked over the edge at the river, where a group of men had piled into a small motorboat and started to move towards their side of the river. "That's not good."

Hiccup took the phone from Astrid and pressed it to the side of his helmet. "Is Toothless back?"

" _What? Night Fury? I, uh, yes, yes, he's flying in right now."_

"Take off all his equipment and put on his other fin."

" _His other fin?"_

"Yes, I left a duffle bag there, it should be by the door, inside is a saddle and a fin, if you just put him underneath it when he's small he can grow into it," Hiccup explained.

" _Hold on, you're kind of muffled...where is the bag?"_

"By the door."

" _Go grab that bag there...yeah...yeah that one, okay so we just put him underneath it?"_

"Take off his small fin and the camera first, then put him under."

" _Okay, okay got it. Yeah he's- holy Valhalla he can get big! Uh...does that window open any more than that? Okay well maybe we'll-"_ There was a loud crashing sound. " _I guess that works too...okay he's heading towards you now."_

"Great. I'll give you back to Astrid," he said handing the phone to Astrid.

She took it and put it back to her ear. "You should pack up and get out of there, once they notice that we're gone they'll start searching the surrounding area."

" _Okay, will do, we can meet at our usual spot?"_

"No, take the others to my house, we can't take the dragon to a public place."

" _Alright, see you there."_

"Bye," Astrid said hanging up the phone and tucking it back into her bag. "Do you see him?"

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, he's right there," he said pointing off towards the opposite side of the roof. They both moved to the other end of the rooftop as Toothless came flying in, swooping down and landing right in front of them. He warbled at them, holding his head up high and puffing his chest out. "Yeah, yeah, you're a hero, you can gloat about it later okay?" Hiccup said as he climbed onto Toothless' back.

"You did great Toothless," Astrid said, giving him an affectionate pat on the side and climbing on afterwards.

"Don't say that it's going to go straight to his head," he joked as they jumped up into the air and flew back towards the city centre.

* * *

"You sure you got everything?" Heather asked, looking back as she held up a large box of equipment.

Fishlegs nodded. "Yeah, I got the dragon, the transmitter, and the receiver, you've got the monitor, the controllers, and the battery pack, Gobber has the telescope and the-"

"Is this important?" Gobber asked, holding up a black duffle bag.

"Yeah that's Hic-" Fishlegs cleared his throat and coughed. "That's the bag that the Night Fury keeps Toothless' fin in, we should take that too, we can bring it back to him."

Gobber nodded as they continued on down the stairs. "That fin...where did the Night Fury get it from?"

"The fin?" Heather asked. "I'm not sure, Astrid never mentioned that to me, until now she was the only one who had contact with him. I'm assuming he must've made it, I don't know anywhere you can buy something like that."

"Yeah…" he mumbled. "Yeah, me either...he doesn't know Hiccup does he?"

Fishlegs looked over at him, or as best he could in the dark stairwell. "Why are you asking about that?"

"I'm just wondering."

"Don't be silly, Hiccup's never met the Night Fury, other than us he doesn't have contact with anyone else, given his situation with the police he's very careful about who he meets with," Heather said flashing the light up at the floor number as they passed. "C'mon, we need to hurry, they could be searching the area right now."

They continued down the stairs and to their cars, loading up everything and driving off towards Astrid's neighbourhood. Luckily they were able to get everything out fast enough and there were no run-ins with any of the outcasts. Back at her house they reconvened, where the dragon was at the centre of their attention, the poor creature was so weak it couldn't even move on its own, whatever Alvin's men had done to it, had caused it significant harm. The group all stood around the dragon, watching it as it laid helplessly in a bundle of old sweaters Astrid had gathered up.

"What did they do to the poor thing?" Heather said shaking her head solemnly. "Maybe we should try bringing it to a hospital or something."

"No, I don't think that's a good idea," Hiccup said. "If this gets out who knows what'll happen, you've already seen the reaction people have had with Toothless, and even if they're not scared there will be a line of scientists ready to try and dissect him."

Fishlegs paced in circles around the room. "We have to do something, look at him, he's in pain, he's going to die if we don't!"

Astrid stood staring down at the dragon, one hand on her chin, the other drumming fingers on her elbow. "There's one person who might be able to help us...but I don't know how she's going to react to this...it might not be a good idea to tell her," she rambled to herself.

"Who?" Hiccup asked.

"A biologist, her name is Gothi."

Gobber turned to look at Astrid. "You know Gothi?"

"Yeah, she came over to the lab as a consultant once, Finn asked her to look at the dragons right after they came through the machine, she was supposed to come a few more times but then the attack on the lab happened," Astrid explained. "How do you know her?"

"Old colleague of mine, she used to teach biology at the university, she's a very smart woman, I didn't know she was still accepting work, she's got to be what? Sixty?"

"Seventy, actually, seventy-one."

"Why would you be concerned about telling her?" Gobber asked.

"She's, she's like my uncle, very focused on research, if we tell her she might only be interested in dissecting the dragon, I barely spoke to her though, so I really can't know for sure," she said to Gobber. "Do you know how she would react, you said you were old colleagues."

Gobber stroked his beard. "Mmmhm, it's possible that's what she'll think, but especially since we only have two living dragons I doubt she'd jump at the chance to kill one of them. Something so rare like these guys...she'd want to preserve them."

"You're certain?" Fishlegs asked.

He shrugged. "I wouldn't say certain, but I'm pretty sure."

"We have to take that chance," Heather interjected. "If we don't find someone who can help it'll die anyway, if the only risk is it dying then we have no reason to hesitate."

Hiccup nodded. "Heather's right, we have to at least try."

"I've got her number right here," Gobber said pulling his phone out of his back pocket. "I can call her over if you want me to."

"Call her, ask her if she can come today," Astrid said before looking towards the Night Fury. "But you should go, it's better if she doesn't know about Toothless, or you, it'll only put the two of you at risk."

"You want me to leave?"

She nodded. "It's better this way, we don't know if we can trust her yet, and there's no reason for you be here, the rest of us can handle this on our own."

He hesitated. "...I guess you're right."

"I'll open the skylight for you," she said leading him up the stairs and into the upper hallway.

"I'll be on the rooftop tomorrow," he said as she climbed onto the side table and unlatched the window, pushing open. "Same time as always, tell me everything that happened then."

"I will," Astrid said offering a hand to help him up, he took it and stepped up onto the table with her. It was a small table and with the two of them standing on it at the same time, they had to stand very close. When she looked up at him their faces were only inches apart.

"Should we talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

"Don't do that, you know what."

She smirked. "Really? You want to talk about it?" He shrugged. "You're a funny guy you know that? I guess it figures, you're not of this world."

"...I should go…" Hiccup mumbled.

"Yeah," Astrid agreed.

They both just stood there for a while, staring at one another, until finally Hiccup slowly broke away his gaze, grabbing onto the roof and pulling himself out of the house. On a knee, he peered back down at her and she looked up at him. "But we'll talk about it right?"

She laughed. "Alright, tomorrow we'll talk about it."

* * *

Whew that was a long one, but yay Hiccstrid is finally starting to come into play, let me know how you think their relationship is going, I have some interesting things planned in the future for them so stay tuned ;)

And if you have any comments, questions, concerns, or cries of anguish please leave them in the reviews! Bye!


	17. Chapter 17: Secrets Found, Secrets Kept

**Welcome back! Thanks so much to all my followers, we have now reached 100 woo hoo! In a later scene I used some of my followers/reviewers usernames as commenters that Astrid reads. P.S. sorry to HiccupSkywalker, I was going to use your username as well but I thought it might be a little confusing since it contains Hiccup's name.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 17: Secrets Found, Secrets Kept

She sat down across from him, a stern, displeased scowl, eyebrows knitted together as she shuffled a small stack of papers out of her bag and onto the table. Once everything had been laid out, she folded her fingers together in front of herself and looked over at him. "These are the forms the lawyer was trying to show you...before you _spat_ at her."

He shook his head indignantly. "I'm not signing that plea deal."

She slammed a hand on the table. "Listen, do you have any idea how ridiculously lucky you are? If dad wasn't the head of the crown attorney's office you wouldn't even have the option of this deal, you're getting away with just probation, do you _want_ to serve jail time?"

"I can't snitch on them Heather, I can't."

Heather leaned back in her chair and groaned, hands covering her face. "Of all the things you could stay true to, this is what you choose? Some stupid gangster code?"

"It's not a gangster code, you have no idea what those guys are capable of, they won't take it lightly if I rat them out," he said. "And they won't just sit by, they'll retaliate, so everyone else knows what happens to people who talk."

"Do you think I'm a idiot? I read the police report, guns weren't even used when you stole all that money from the bank, they're not dangerous, and even if they were, with your track record, dad'll have a police tail on you for the next ten years."

He shook his head and leaned in towards her. "That's what you don't understand, they might be more discreet than the gangs but they're nothing to be scoffed at, these guys are nasty okay?"

"Dagur-"

"They don't mess around, and if I did anything they'd being going after you and dad first, not me."

That made her shiver. "What? Why would they do that?"

"To send a message, so that others won't try to betray them. They're not like Alvin, they're much, much worse."

"Alvin?" Heather's brows scrunched up slowly. "Alvin the Treacherous Alvin? The outcast's leader Alvin?"

Dagur's face fell, a mixture of terror and confusion. "How did you know that?"

She stood up abruptly. "Dagur...for the love of Thor, please tell me you're not involved with those scumbags, you do not understand the shit they're into."

"No, no, I'm not involved with them anymore, it's been-"

" _Anymore_?" Heather stared at him with wide eyes, horrified by what she was hearing. "When were you involved with them in the first place? You realize these are the people who kidnapped my best friend right?"

Dagur shook his head and waved his hands around. "They weren't going to hurt her, they just wanted Finn, that's all!"

"You...knew about that? Were you there when it happened?" He didn't speak, unsure of what to say to her. Heather took a slow step away from him, keeping her eyes glued to his face. "Did you know they were going to attack the lab?"

"Only a little, they didn't like to tell me much. I wasn't-"

" _Only_ _a little_?" She spat back, voice bitter and angry. "But you knew, _you knew_. You could've warned them, you could've prevented all of this from happening!"

Dagur stood from his chair. "Heather, I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"No, you sit the fuck down," She said pointing towards his chair. "Or I'll call in the guards."

He complied, hands outward in a defensive position as he slowly returned to his seat. "Heather, Heather listen to me, I can't identify the men I worked with, please understand that. I'm doing this for you and dad, I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you because of me."

"Yeah? That makes two of us," Heather said shaking her head, a disgusted look on her face. "Do you know the kind of shit those bastards are in? Do you have any idea what they stole, what they're trying to do with what they stole?"

Dagur's face began to drop, going from apologetic to solemn. "What do you know Heather? Where are you getting all this information from?"

" _That's_ what you're worried about?"

"No, this is serious, don't get involved with this. The outcasts are one thing, but the brothers aren't screwing around, they won't-"

Heather narrowed her eyes at him. "The brothers? Is that their gang name or something?"

"Heather, no-" She turned around and banged on the door, the guard opened it almost immediately. "Heather, you have to listen to me, please!"

"Quiet," the guard said sternly, as Heather brushed past him and exited out to the hall.

She looked back at her brother momentarily. "Take the plea deal Daugr," she said before turning and disappearing around the corner.

Heather's lungs burned as she rushed down the street towards the Terror Mail building, she couldn't believe what she had heard, she didn't want to believe it. Dagur had always gotten himself into trouble, since high school he had hung around with the wrong kids, drinking and smoking pot behind the school, skipping classes, getting into fights, but she had never thought he would ever join a gang, a real gang. Even at his worst it was mostly just petty theft and minor assault charges, now suddenly he was robbing banks and hanging out with organized criminals. Heather felt like she couldn't breath, like all the air was being sucked out of her, should she tell her father? _Could_ she tell him? It would break his heart, how could she do that to him? She stumbled out of the elevator and towards her desk, grabbing her bag and shuffling her things into it messily.

Astrid stood up from her cubicle and walked over to Heather's, concern written all over her face. "Heather? What's going on? Are you okay?"

She just collapsed into her chair and covered her face with her hands. "You won't believe this Astrid…"

Astrid moved in closer. "What happened? Tell me."

"My brother...somehow he was involved with them, he knew about the attack, _he knew_."

"Slow down," she said, putting her hands on her friend's shoulders. "Your brother? The one who was arrested?"

Heather's head popped up. "...What? How did you know that?"

Astrid winced. "Sorry...I was doing research on the recent bank robberies, and it came up. I wasn't snooping, I swear." She paused. "Well, I _was_ snooping, but not on you. I was worried you didn't want me to know so I didn't say anything."

"I guess it's all out in the open now," she said with a sigh. "I should've told you from the beginning. I didn't want anybody to know about it, I was ashamed of him."

"Heather, no, you should never feel that way," Astrid said pulling her friend into a hug. "I'd never think less of you because of something your brother did. I'm sure it's not that bad."

Heather scoffed. "You want a bet? He said he was with them, with the outcasts, he knew about the attack, he knew about the kidnapping. _Your kidnapping_."

"...He's not still with them is he?" she asked pulling away.

"No, I don't think so, he said he was working with some other guys, the brothers or something," Heather explained. "But either way he can't be involved with them now, he's been in jail for weeks." She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands. "I just can't understand it, I knew he could be a troublemaker, but I never expected it to go this far," she said shaking her head in disbelief. "To think, the people we've been fighting, the people who kidnapped you, he was one of those people. How didn't I know about this sooner?"

"It's not your fault, you can't blame yourself for someone else's actions."

"What should I do?" Heather asked.

"If you don't want to see him, don't see him anymore. You don't owe him anything."

"No, I-" Heather sighed. "I want to do the right thing, I want to make this better," she groaned and rubbed her face. "This whole time we were trying to stop those bastards he was working against us."

Astrid leaned against Heather's desk a thoughtful expression on her face. "...Maybe we can get him to work with us instead?"

Heather slowly moved her hands away from her face and looked up as Astrid. "What do you mean by that?"

"If he was with them, maybe he can give us useful information, insider information," she suggested. "We still aren't sure how many dragons they have, or what happened to the machine plans, it's possible he knows something that can help us."

Heather shook her head. "He won't talk, my father got him an amazing plea deal where all he had to do is tell the police the names of the people he worked with, but he refuses to take it. He thinks those guys will come after me and my dad."

"That's the police, they're clumsy and indiscreet, as soon as they know, everyone knows. You're his sister, he trusts you," Astrid said, Heather bit her lip and looked off to the side. "If you don't want to do it I won't be angry."

"No, no I want to do it. After all the trouble he's caused I think I deserve at least this much from him," Heather replied with a huff. "I just don't think he'll tell me, he didn't seem to want me to know anything about this. You should've seen how freaked out he was when he realized that I knew about Alvin."

Astrid smiled. "He's worried about you, he doesn't want you involved, but that's not up to him is it?"

Heather laughed. "No, it isn't."

"Then you just have to tell him that, tell him that you're in this whether he helps you or not. If he has any respect for you, he'll tell you what you need to know." Astrid looked down at her watch and stood up. "As much as I'd like to keep talking, I've got to finish up here. "

Heather nodded, making a shooing motion with her hand. "I know, go get your work done, we can talk later."

"Coffee? Tomorrow?"

"Sounds good," she said with a smile before turning back around towards her computer.

Astrid shuffled back into her own cubicle and continued writing. With all the commotion around The Night Fury, and the recent string of bank robberies, Astrid had plenty to write about. Magnus was eating it up, traffic on the site had nearly doubled since Astrid's first article on The Night Fury, and it was only growing. People weren't sure what to make of him, and there was no shortage of articles criticising him for his vigilante antics. Astrid was doing everything she could to sway the public opinion in his favour, and it was starting to work. Though the media continued portraying him negatively, online was a different story.

 _ **Night Fire or The Creature**_

 _The police department is full of it. When it really comes down to it he's the one saving lives, not them. We should be treating this guy like a hero, not hunting him down. #thefantasticnightfury_

 _ **Sidhewolf5**_

 _Anybody else wanna make The Fantastic Night Fury the new chief of police? No? Just me?_

 _ **LittleOldWriter12**_

 _The BPD is more concerned about their rep than they do about actually helping people, honestly their crap doesn't even surprise me anymore. #thefantasticnightfury #smh_

 _ **ArthurShade**_

 _Come on man, The Night Fury saves a bunch of people from a burning building and the news is still coming at him? He could cure cancer and they would still hate him. #thefantasticnightfury_

 _ **ilovesnakes2643**_

 _Nice job saving those people. Night Fury: 1 BPD: 0 #thefantasticnightfury_

 _ **Anonymous Noob the 2nd**_

 _It's pretty sad when one guy is better than your entire police force. #thefantasticnightfury #youhadonejob_

 _ **2012209**_

 _It's a sad day when you stop rooting for your own police department and start rooting for the masked vigilante instead. #thefantasticnightfury_

 _ **Tenchiko**_

 _Ummm how is every news station in this city able to shake their finger at The Fantastic Night Fury while completely ignoring how utterly incompetent the BPD is? #thefantasticnightfury #imdone_

Astrid smiled to herself as she scrolled through the pages and pages of comments relating to The Night Fury. Maybe the police department would never support him, maybe the media would never support him, but she knew the public did, and that was the real victory. Magnus had demanded another article about The Night Fury, and Astrid thought it might be the right time to take aim at the BPD and their villainizing of him and his efforts to help the city. She opened up a new document on her computer and typed in a title: " _Police Target Night Fury; Night Fury Targets Criminals"._ Astrid stared at the title, it was sure to ruffle a few feathers, but then again, it wouldn't be a good article if it didn't. She began typing away, working on the opening paragraph.

A hand touched her shoulder and she turned around to see Heather standing behind her, her jacket on and her purse over her shoulder. "You staying late?" she asked.

Astrid leaned over slightly to see out the window, it had already turned dark outside, she hadn't even noticed. Her eyes darted back to the corner of the monitor, it was later than she expected. "Shoot, I've got to go," Astrid said grabbing her bag.

"Did you bring your bike? I can give you a ride if you want," Heather offered, jangling her car keys in her hand.

Astrid shook her head and pulled her coat on. "No, I was supposed to meet, _you know who_ tonight."

Heather snapped her fingers in realization. "Right, he left before we dealt with the…" She looked around to see if anybody could hear them, there were only a few people left in the office. "The _other_ dragon," she said in a whisper.

"Yeah," Astrid said absently as she logged out of her computer and shut it off.

"Well you won't take too long will you? I can wait if you still want that ride, it's no problem."

Astrid shook her head. "No, no, that's alright. It might be a while, I wouldn't want to keep you."

"I'm not busy tonight, it's really okay."

"Seriously, Heather, I'm fine. You can go ahead without me," she said staring at her friend adamantly. "Really."

A sly smile spread across Heather's face. "Alright, I'll just be going then. I'll see you tomorrow," she said nudging Astrid with her arm before heading off towards the elevators.

Astrid shook her head with a smile as she watched her friend step into the elevator, the doors slowly cutting between them with a ping. She looked around the office, there were only a few people scattered about, sitting in their dimly lit cubicles, click clacking away at their keyboards. With the public in a frenzy over The Night Fury more and more people were beginning to work nights to get articles out on time. Magnus had been especially merciless as of late, doling out strict deadlines out like candy.

Astrid shuffled the last couple items into her bag and slung it over her shoulder, quietly heading towards the elevators. There wasn't usually so many people in the office this late, and she hoped nobody tried to catch the elevator up with her; she didn't want anyone to know about her and The Night Fury's little meetups on the roof. Astrid let out a sigh as the doors slid shut, nobody in the office seemed to notice or care, and she watched the little numbers go up and up as she reached the top. He was already there by the time she reached the roof, he stood at the edge, looking over the cityscape from above. Toothless lay curled up nearby.

"I'm sorry, I'm late," she said approaching him from behind.

Hiccup turned around and shrugged. "No problemo, I wasn't waiting long."

"It's been pretty hectic around here lately, you've created quite the stir up," she said jokingly.

"A good stir up I hope?"

This time Astrid shrugged. "I like it anyway."

"And the dragon?" he asked. "Is it alright?"

She nodded. "It's alive, but just barely. Gothi isn't sure if it'll survive much longer but Fishlegs has been looking after it per her instructions. She was very curious to know where it came from."

"You didn't tell her did you?"

Astrid smiled and shook her head. "Of course not."

"Did Gothi say what was wrong with it?"

"She wasn't completely sure, after all she didn't know anything about it's physiology," Astrid began. "But she did say it seemed to have a similar reaction to how humans react to poisoning, it even started vomiting."

"It threw up?"

"Yeah it was bizarre...it wasn't like any vomit I'd ever seen, it almost looked like lava," she said narrowing her eyes in thought. "Fishlegs took some samples, he said he could try and analyse it, maybe figure out what was poisoning it."

Hiccup bit his lip, he didn't like where this was going. "They really must've been experimenting on it, giving it harmful chemicals."

"Why would they do that?" Astrid asked aloud.

Hiccup could only think of one reason why they would try to feed the dragons various chemicals but he didn't say it. He wasn't supposed to know about the molecule, what it could really do. "...I don't know, but whatever the reason, we need to figure out a way to get those other dragons out of there, before they kill them," he said. "And we can't let them build that portal, if they do that they'll only gain access to more dragons."

"You're right, but how?" she asked. "You're strong, but everytime we infiltrate them they only get more cautious."

Hiccup shook his head. "I'm not sure, but I'll think of something." He looked back at her. "Keep the dragon alive, I'll return tomorrow," he said turning towards Toothless, who had laid down by the ledge. "I can take you home."

Astrid moved closer. "Didn't you want to talk about _that_?"

Hiccup stopped and thought for a moment, before realizing what she was referring to. When he remembered it, his face began to slowly heat up at the memory of it. "Oh," he said, turning back around. "I did say that, didn't I?"

Astrid laughed. "You did."

Hiccup cleared his throat. "Well, I just...I don't know, wondered what it meant?" He silently cursed at himself, he knew for certain she thought he was an idiot now. Hiccup was never the best at dealing with women, he had never had a real girlfriend, and he still wasn't sure what to make of her advances. Did she like him? Was that even possible?

"What it meant?" Astrid asked, amused.

"Yeah."

"Don't you have kissing over there?"

"Over there?" He asked, but quickly understood what she meant, she was talking about the other side of the machine, where she believed he was from. "Oh, over there. Well, uh…" Hiccup trailed off, he didn't know what to say to that.

"Here, when someone kisses you, it usually means they like you," Astrid explained. "You know, romantically likes you."

His head whipped around. "Romantically?"

"Yeah," Astrid tipped her head at him. "It's not just dragons is it? Aren't there any people where you're from? Other girls? I'm not the first you've ever met am I?"

"I've met other girls," Hiccup said quietly. "Just...none like you."

That made Astrid blush, quite clearly, and he could see the reaction on her face. She smiled at him, taken aback by his words. "That's quite a thing to say."

"Oh."

"I didn't mean in a bad way," she said, taking a step closer. "Do you like me?"

He swallowed nervously. "Romantically?"

Astrid giggled. "Well that is what we're talking about isn't it?"

"I guess so…"

"You guess that you like me?"

Hiccup jolted and shook his head vigorously. "No, no, I meant that I guess you're right that we were talking about it!"

"So you don't like me."

"No! I do!" Hiccup stopped and stared at her face, the realization of what he just said sinking in. Astrid looked over at him, hair gently swaying in the wind, softened eyes and lips slightly upturned. He cleared his throat loudly. "I...uh...I do like you...you know, romantically." Her eyes burned into him and he felt like he might pass out as he willed himself to speak again. "...Do you? Like me, Uh, romantically?"

Her smile widened and she snickered. "I thought that was kind of implied."

"Was it?"

"When I said that kissing is what you did when you liked someone, you know, because I kissed you. You haven't forgotten about it already have you?"

Hiccup laughed and shook his head. "I don't think I could forget that."

"We could try it again," she offered, taking another step towards him and reaching for his helmet with her hand.

He touched her hand with his and stepped away slightly. Astrid couldn't know who he was, everything was going so well, if she found out now it would ruin everything. "I don't...I don't think that's a good idea."

"That's alright, we don't have to," Astrid said, pulling her arm back.

Hiccup held onto her hand before it could slip away. "I'm sorry."

She smiled. "You don't have to apologize."

Still holding onto her hand, he led her towards Toothless, who had begun to sit up and warbled as the approached. "I'll take you home," he quietly offered again.

* * *

Fishlegs looked over towards the window, listening to the old fire escape rattling loudly as the wind seemed to pick up, whistling past his building. It was already quite dark out, he would've normally gone to bed by now but the small dragon in his kitchen trembled furiously and he couldn't help but worry for it. He grabbed another towel and tucked it around the small creature who lay in a bed of old rags arranged in a bowl. The poor dragon had been in bad shape all day, vomiting it's strange slogely vomit that petrified almost immediately upon contact with the air.

A loud thunk against the window gave Fishlegs a start and caused him to yelp, snapping his head around towards the source of the sound. The Night Fury stood outside on the fire escape, a flat hand on the window as he peered inside.

Fishlegs groaned in annoyance and began making his way over. "You almost gave me a heart attack, you couldn't text me like a normal person?" He grumbled as he put his hands to the bottom of the window and heaved it open.

Hiccup climbed inside and yanked his helmet off placing down on the dining room table. Toothless shrunk down to his smaller size and leap in, curling up on an armchair nearby. "Fishlegs you won't believe what just happened, _I_ almost didn't believe it," he said breathlessly as he began pacing around the room.

"Take your shoes off man, this is my living room," Fishlegs said taking Hiccup's helmet and moving it over towards the front hall, placing it on the entrance table.

Hiccup complied, walking over to the front mat and shuffling his shoes off. "She likes me, she actually likes me."

"What are you talking about? Who likes you?"

"Astrid," Hiccup said, putting his hands on Fishlegs' shoulder, an ecstatic smile across his face. "She likes me, and not just friend likes me but really actually likes me."

Fishlegs grinned. "Really? That's amazing, did you guys meet up today? How did it come up?"

He nodded and began pacing around the room again. "Yeah we met up just a little while ago, it was...oh my gods I can't even describe it...yesterday she kissed me you know? On the helmet, but still."

Fishlegs' smile began to drop. "Wait...what do you mean? I thought you were talking about Hiccup-you not Night Fury-you, Astrid likes The Night Fury?"

"Obviously, who else would I be talking about?" Hiccup asked turning back to his friend. "I've known her since first grade as Hiccup-me, if she was ever going to like me it would've happened a long time ago."

"How are you going to maintain a relationship with her?" Fishlegs asked, brows furrowed together in concern. "She knows both your identities, are you going to tell her who you really are?" Hiccup didn't reply and just shot Fishlegs a uncertain look. "This isn't a good idea, maybe you should stop seeing her as The Night Fury."

"I can't!" Hiccup exclaimed. "Astrid finally _likes_ me, you of all people should know how much this means to me."

Fishlegs sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "How are you possibly going to make this work? Are you just going to hide behind that helmet pretend to be The Night Fury your whole life? What kind of relationship is that?"

"I can make it work," he insisted stubbornly. "And besides, I can't just stop seeing her, we need her to help us save the other dragons." Hiccup looked around the room. "Where's the dragon now?"

Fishlegs gestured towards the kitchen. "He's in there, I've been keeping a close eye on him."

"Astrid said you were going to try to analyse the dragon's vomit, did you?"

He nodded. "Yeah, Gothi watched him for a few hours so I could go to the lab at work."

"And?"

"I told her that I didn't find anything...but I did, I'm not sure how to tell the others yet," Fishlegs explained, glancing towards the dragon. "At first I thought maybe they were trying to recreate the englargium, since Astrid stole their information on it from their last base."

"That wasn't it?"

"No, when I analysed what was in the dragon, I found a lot of it. If all they wanted was the enlargium to get the dragons to grow, they already had it."

"So what does that mean?" Hiccup asked.

Fishlegs stared at his friend, lips pressed into a thin line. "I think they're trying to megadose the dragons."

Even though Hiccup didn't know what exactly that meant, he already didn't like the sound of it. "Megadose? What are you saying?"

"They're trying to give the dragons extremely large doses of englargium at once, just in him," he said pointing towards the bowl where the small dragon lay tucked inside. "I found almost ten times the amount that's in one of Toothless' pills, it seems like that's what made him so weak."

"Why would it make them weak? Don't the dragons need englargium to survive?"

Fishlegs nodded. "They do, but too much of any substance can kill you. Clearly The Outcasts don't understand this, they could be seriously harming the dragons with their megadosing. Who knows if they've already killed one or more of the others."

Hiccup walked over to the armchair where Toothless was resting, and watched him as his body went in and out with each gentle breath. "I don't get it...if they have the enlargium, why haven't they tried to use the dragons yet? They're powerful enough as it is, but they're trying to make them more powerful? They've seen what Toothless can do, what just one dragon can do, and they have, what? Three?"

"Maybe they're preparing for something."

He turned back to look at Fishlegs. "Preparing for what?"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, I hope you all liked it and** **if you have any comments, questions, concerns, or cries of anguish make sure to leave me a review!**


	18. Chapter 18: Plan

**Anyone else getting excited for the new HTTYD comic coming out? Just a few more days now :DD**

 **In other news; my schedule might be getting a little more hectic in the next few months so don't be surprised if I go on hiatus. Nothing will probably happen until November, but you never know.**

* * *

Chapter 18: Plan

Hiccup clacked away at his computer, eyes darting around the computer screen as he worked. He looked over what he had just typed out, groaned, and began slamming the backspace button repeatedly. It was hard to properly focus after his discussion with Fishlegs, he couldn't understand what The Outcasts were planning, and that worried him. The small dragon in Fishlegs' kitchen was just one of many, and he didn't even want to think of what could be happening to the others right now. They needed a plan, and fast.

Gobber came up from behind Hiccup, placing a elbow on his shoulder. "Working hard or hardly working?" he asked peering down at his computer screen.

"I've been a little out of it lately," Hiccup admitted. "Ever since they found that dragon I've been wondering what might be happening to the-"

"Oh they told you did they?"

Hiccup spun around in his chair and furrowed his brows. "What? Oh! Yeah, Fishlegs told me about it yesterday."

Gobber narrowed his eyes at Hiccup. "Is that so?"

"...Why are you giving me that look?" he asked hesitantly.

"It's nothing, only...I noticed that The Night Fury had something very interesting when I got to meet him," Gobber said with a nonchalant shrug. "He had a fin device that was suspiciously similar to the one you were working on, you didn't happen to give him the fin did you?"

Hiccup froze, unsure of what to say. Should he admit to it? He didn't exactly _give_ the fin to anyone, but then again, the alternative was telling him the truth, the whole truth. "Uh...yes," he said stiffly.

Gobber crossed his arms and started down at Hiccup. "I thought you never met him before?"

"Well I did," he replied with a nervous grin.

"And why exactly did you feel it was necessary to keep this from everyone?" Hiccup didn't reply, he couldn't think of a believable excuse. "Have you told the others?"

"Fishlegs knows."

"What about Astrid and Heather?"

"Don't tell Astrid!" he exclaimed, popping out of his seat.

Gobber stumbled backwards slightly, startled by Hiccup's sudden outburst. "Why not? She's part of the group working with him isn't she? Wouldn't it be better if she knew your relationship with him?" Hiccup stared up at him, mouth pressed into a tight scowl. "There's no reason to be so secretive, I mean it's not like-wait, you're not, no, no that's impossible," he said with a chuckle. Hiccup didn't laugh though, and this wiped the smile right off Gobber's face. "No, no you're not. There's no way that's possible."

" _Don't tell Astrid._ "

Gobber stared at Hiccup, mouth agape. "Hiccup. Tell me you're not him. Tell me you're not The Night Fury." Hiccup said nothing. "You can't be serious, what were you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking okay? I didn't mean for it to turn out this way, it...it just sort of happened."

"Just sort of happened?" Gobber echoed. "Do you mean to tell me that you got a secret superhero identity _by accident_?"

Hiccup winced. "...Yes."

Gobber crossed his arms. "So why exactly can't you tell Astrid in particular?"

"It's...it's complicated okay?"

"I don't have anywhere to go."

He sighed. "It's...we're…" There was no casual way to tell him this, even under normal circumstances it was awkward to tell a family friend about your relationship, and this wasn't an ideal way to tell him. "Astrid and I are kind of...you know…"

Gobber dropped his arms and leaned forward. "Really? You two have…? That's great, I never thought you'd ever build up the courage to-" he stopped suddenly and narrowed his eyes. "...Hold on. When you say Astrid and you, you're talking about you as _you_ right?"

"Not...technically speaking, no."

His face quickly turned from uneasy to angry. "Hiccup."

"I know, I know alright? It was a terrible idea, but I never thought it would happen!"

"No, clearly you don't know, because you're still going along with it."

Hiccup stood up from his chair. " _You know_ how long I've wanted this, and now that she finally likes me, wants to _be_ with me, you think I should end it? You're the same as Fishlegs!"

"No," Gobber said, "I don't think you should end it, I think you should tell her the truth."

"That's the same thing."

"You don't know that."

"Neither do you," Hiccup said, grabbing his bag from beside his desk. "I have to go, I told Fishlegs I'd meet up with him today."

"Hiccup, hold on for a second," Gobber said, cautious hands outstretched.

Hiccup gave him a sympathetic look before mumbling a final, "I have to go," and rushing out of the lab. He knew what he was doing couldn't last forever, but the fear that she would see him, the real him, and look at him with disappointed eyes was the most terrifying thought he'd ever imagined. So he buried it, and ran from it.

* * *

There was a ka-chak as the door unlocked, and the faint rattling of the chain being removed. Fishlegs opened the door to let Hiccup inside and quickly shut it behind him. "You're early," he commented as they walked towards the living room. "Astrid and Heather won't be here for a little while."

"I finished work sooner than I thought," Hiccup lied. "How much did you tell them?"

"I told them about the enlargium and the megadosing, I didn't go into the details though," Fishlegs said. "I was worried they would start asking questions, but the other dragons seem to be their main concern."

"Of course," he said with a nod. "How's the dragon?"

"Better, Meatlug's been able to move around more but he's still quite weak," Fishlegs explained.

Hiccup quirked an eyebrow at his friend. "Meatlug?"

"Oh, right, that's what I started calling him. I thought it would be easier than just saying 'the dragon' all the time."

"I like it," he said with a smile. "It suits him."

Fishlegs walked over to the couch where the small brown dragon lay curled up. "He's actually very smart, I've even taught him to use the tv remote," he said excitedly, grabbing the controller from off the coffee table and placing it in front of Meatlug. The dragon opened it's small yellow eyes and sniffed at the remote, moving a foot over to press down the power button, flickering the TV to life.

" _You thought I didn't know did you? Well I did, how co-!"_ A voice over the television yelled, a dramatic soap opera, before being cut off as Meatlug pressed another button, changing the channel. " _You just grab it and go, it's that easy! Wow!"_ Another voice chimed, before the channel was changed again, this time to the news station. " _Yet another bank robbery occurred this Sunday, nearly thirty thousand dollars worth of cash and valuables stolen from secur-"_ Meatlug changed the channel for the last time, leaving it to play cartoons.

"That's impressive, I didn't realize the dragons even had an interest in television," Hiccup said looking down at Meatlug. "Maybe I should've tried that out with Toothless."

"It's not just television, he understand things, when I talk it's almost as if he hears what I'm saying. They might be the most intelligent species outside humans that we've ever encountered. And not we as in us, we as in all of history."

There was a knock at the door and they looked at each other, then Fishlegs walked over and peered through the peephole. Once he knew who it was, he unlocked and unlached the door, letting Astrid and Heather inside. "Should we have scheduled this meeting earlier?" he asked, amused, "everyone's so early."

"We couldn't wait," Astrid said, much less amused. "The more time we waste, the closer those other dragons get to dying from the megadosing."

"Why do you think they're doing it?" Heather asked, as they all walked towards Hiccup and the living room. "Do they think they'll be able to make then stronger by doing it?"

Fishlegs shut and locked the door, walking over to join them in the living room. "That's my guess," he said.

"They have three dragons though," Astrid pointed out, "four before we took that one," she said gesturing towards Meatlug who sat on the couch, still watching cartoons on the TV. "Everyone's seen what The Night Fury can do with just one dragon, what do they need more power for?"

"A gang war maybe?" Hiccup suggested. "They wanted the machine so they could get more dragons, but without your uncle and without the other half of the plans, they can't do that. I'm thinking this is their plan B."

Heather furrowed her brows. "Four dragons wasn't enough for them? What kind of gang are they up against?"

Hiccup shook his head and looked to the floor. "I don't know."

"It doesn't matter right now, what matters is getting the other half of the plans and the dragons back," Astrid interjected sharply. "If there's another gang we can deal with that afterwards."

"How though?" Fishlegs asked.

"We could try and sneak Toothless in again," Heather proposed, looking at the others.

Astrid shook a hand at her friend. "No, that won't work a second time, they'll be on edge after we got the first dragon out and we can't risk losing Toothless. It's too dangerous."

"We need to get them out of their base, that's the only way we can have them on our terms," Hiccup said. "Then we'll have the advantage instead of them."

"What could we possibly do to make them leave though?" Fishlegs asked, looking around the room as the others thought silently.

"We could flush them out," Heather suggested. "Set their base on fire, or send the police to them. But both those options are risky, for the dragons and for the plans."

Astrid nodded in agreement. "You're right, it's too risky. We should be trying to lure them out, using something they want."

"Something they want?" Hiccup asked, he didn't like the direction she was going in.

"They want me, if I try to-"

"No," Hiccup said quickly, "if something goes wrong, if they catch you-"

"They won't."

"Hiccup's right," Heather interjected, "even if you tell them what happened to Finn they might not believe you and who knows what they'll try to do to you." She shuddered at the thought. "You said we couldn't risk losing Toothless, the same goes for you."

Astrid looked around at the others, and let out an exasperated sigh. "What else can we do?" she asked. "There's nothing else they want, only the plans, and I'd rather them get me than the plans."

"That's not necessarily true," Hiccup said slowly. "They only want you because they want Finn. If we send them a message claiming to be him, maybe we could get Alvin to come out of his base, even take his half of the plans out with him."

Fishlegs looked upwards in thought. "Pretended to be Finn…? That might just work."

"Why would Finn agree to meet him?" Astrid asked. "Without a reason it'll seem to good to be true, he'll realize it's a trap."

"So we have to give a reason," Hiccup explained. "We send a letter to The Outcasts, claiming to be Finn, agreeing to give up the rest of the plans in exchange for Astrid's safety. We ask them to bring the first half so we can authenticate them."

"My safety?"

Hiccup nodded. "They still don't know where Finn really is right? Think about it, if you were in hiding from a group of criminals and they had attempted to kidnap a close family member of yours in order to capture you, wouldn't you start to feel responsible? It makes perfect sense that Finn would cave and agree to their demands."

"Finn would never do that," she said shaking her head.

"But they don't know that, do they?"

Astrid nodded slowly, a small smile appearing on her face. "No, they don't."

"Okay, so we send this letter, they come to us with the plans...how exactly does this help us get the dragons out of their base?" Fishlegs asked. "Am I missing something?"

"No matter how convincing we try to sound, The Outcasts will still be suspicious about the letter," Hiccup began, "especially if we ask them to bring their half of the plans with them."

Astrid's smiled widened, she understood where his plan was going. "They'll probably bring half their men with them, to keep the plans safe, their base will be easier to attack."

"Exactly."

"So...half of us meet with them and half of us attack the base while they're out?" Heather confirmed. "Who should go where?"

"We should have a watchout," Astrid said. "Someone needs to stay near the base to let us know when they leave or if anything unusual happens. That building is still standing isn't it?" she asked, turning towards Heather.

She nodded. "Yes, but not for much longer."

"Fishlegs and I can be watchouts," Hiccup offered, giving Fishlegs a nudge and a glance.

Fishlegs furrowed his brows for a moment, before realizing the reason for the strange behaviour and quickly cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah, yeah we can do lookout."

"Maybe Fishlegs should come with us," Heather said, "it would be helpful to have someone to pretend to be Finn, and he's the closest in appearance, male and blond."

His eyes darted towards Hiccup, he could see a suppressed panic in them. "No, Fishlegs is too young, they'll see through it. I can ask Gobber to do it, he's also blond, and closer to his age," Hiccup offered.

"Do you think they'll be fooled by that? Finn doesn't look much like Gobber, not in the face," Astrid said, her mouth and brows crumpled in uncertainty.

"They won't know his face as well as you do," Heather reminded her, " and we can put glasses and a hat on him, they won't know the difference."

"And what about The Night Fury?" she asked.

"He should stay with us," Fishlegs said, "for the attack on the base."

"No," Hiccup told them, shaking his head, "The Night Fury should be at the meeting site, we don't know what they'll plan to do, if something goes wrong you'll need him there."

Fishlegs stared at his friend in disbelief. "So _we're_ supposed to attack the base on _our_ own?" he asked sharply, wide eyes staring daggers at the side of Hiccup's head. He could tell by his tone that _we_ was meant to mean _me_ instead.

"Gobber will pretend to be Finn, he can confirm if the plans are real. Once that's done you can tip the police, I'm sure they'll jump at the chance to catch The Outcasts' leader," Hiccup explained slowly. "After that's finished, The Night Fury can fly over o the base and assist with the attack, even if they figure out what we're doing, they won't get back there before he does. Not when he's on Toothless."

Astrid nodded. "This could work."

"How are we going to get the message to them?" Heather asked the group. "They don't exactly have a mailing address."

"Nothing traceable, otherwise they might figure out it's not from Finn," Astrid said.

Hiccup walked over to the window and looked out, he could see only a small sliver of the river between the buildings and bridges. "Which way does the river flow?" he asked, keeping his eyes out the window.

"South I think," Heather answered.

He pointed out at one of the many bridges that crossed over the river. "If we drop a bottle or a canister with our message from that bridge, it should make its way down to The Outcasts' base. There's no way for them to trace that back to us."

"How will we know if it keeps going and misses the island?" Astrid asked.

"I can send in a small drone with a camera to watch from the sky. If we make the bottle a bright enough colour it won't be hard to see," Hiccup said, turning back to the others.

Heather nodded. "I can also put a tracker on it."

"Wait, wait," Fishlegs interrupted, waving his hands in the air. "Even if we get this message to them successfully, there's no way for them to respond to us. What if they have other demands, what if they don't agree to our terms?"

"They will," Astrid said suddenly. "The Outcasts are desperate, we can see that. They're afraid of something, maybe we don't know what, but we know what they want, what they think will help them. If we give them that, no negotiations, just yes or no, they'll take it. They can't afford not to."

"We'll have to find somewhere for us to meet with them, preferably somewhere far from their base," Fishlegs said.

Heather nodded. "I can do that."

"I'll have to get a drone ready and speak to Gobber about the plan." Hiccup cringed at the thought, after their last conversation today it wouldn't be easy to convince him. "We should all prepare and meet again in a few days, Wednesday?" Everyone nodded. "Good, I'll see you all then," he said turning towards the door.

"Wait, we'll come too," Astrid said catching up with him. "It's better to go in groups, especially at night."

"Actually, I'll stay a bit longer," Heather said, sitting down next to Meatlug. "I wanted to see the dragon a little more."

Astrid turned back to her friend. "How are you going to get back? I gave you a ride over. I can wait, how long do you think you will be?"

"I can give her a ride if she needs one," Fishlegs offered, putting a hand up.

Astrid looked to Heather, to make sure she was alright with this. Heather just smiled and gave a nod, eyes drifting towards Fishlegs. "Okay," she said, turning her body back to the door where Hiccup was. "I'll see you at work." Hiccup and Astrid let themselves out of the apartment and stepped into the elevator. "Thank you," she said to him as they stood inside, the elevator making soft beeps as they descended, "for everything, all your help. I don't know if we could've done any of this without you."

"It's no problem."

"I know you're doing this for your mother, I shouldn't have said what I said that day, but I-"  
"I'm not doing this for her," Hiccup said, keeping his eyes forward as the elevator door slid open with a ping sound. That surprised Astrid, and she stared at him for a moment, unsure if she heard him right. "She's dead. I've known that for a long time, I only wanted to know what really happened to her. That's not important anymore though, there's so much more at stake now."

They stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby. "You must think I'm such a manipulative bitch," she said with a short laugh.

"I would never think that about you," he said as they made their way out to the street.

She smiled to herself "That's good to hear. I know I've dragged you into a lot of danger, I'm sorry for that."

"You don't-" he stopped and moved to touch her arm, but she stiffened slightly. He wasn't The Night Fury right now, he was just Hiccup. He pulled back, and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "You don't need to apologize, I choose this on my own." The parking lot for Fishlegs' building was a little ways off, a short walk through the dark streets, it was no wonder Astrid didn't want anyone to have to go on their own. "You drove here?" he asked as the parking lot came into view.

"My bike," she corrected.

"It must be-" before he could finish his sentence, a shadowed figure crept out of the darkness and moved towards them.

It was difficult to see the figure, his clothes were dark and his face was obscured by shadows. They couldn't even tell that he was a man for certain, but the gleam off the knife he held was quite clear. "Keys," he said gruffly, approaching them slowly.

Astrid's hands clutched tightly to her bag, and Hiccup put his hands out slowly. "Hey, listen, you don't want to do this," he said cautiously.

"Keys," he repeated, a little more firm this time. Astrid reached into her bag with one hand, eyes glued to the man in front of them. "Slowly," he said, pointing the knife towards her. She slowed her arm down, reaching in and pulling out her keys, extending her arm out for the man to take them. Hiccup watched her, he knew Astrid wasn't the type to submit to anyone. Using his free hand, the man reached out to take the keys from her. When his hand was only millimetres away she dropped the keys and grabbed his arm, giving it a hard twist until he fell to the ground, the knife clattering on the asphalt by Hiccup's feet. "You bitch-!" the man hissed, diving towards the knife. Astrid's eyes darted towards Hiccup, they were wide with urgency. As the man's hand moved towards the knife, Hiccup stomped on his wrist stopping it. She ran over, grabbing the knife and tossing it into a nearby dumpster with a loud echoing clang. With his other hand, the man grabbed at Hiccup's ankle, yanking at it until he was able to get his arm free. Hiccup stumbled backwards as the man rose to his feet and scampered away down the street, yelling profanities back at them as he did.

Astrid sighed, shoulders relaxing. "What a city we live in."

Hiccup walked over to where Astrid dropped her keys and picked them up for her, brushing off any dirt that had gotten on them. "You should be more careful, what if you were alone? He could've killed you," he said handing her keys back to her.

"He wouldn't have killed me, he's a coward, and a car isn't worth murder charges."

"Do you think he was with The Outcasts?" Hiccup asked as the thought suddenly came to him. "There were people following you before weren't there?"

She shook her head. "It's been a month or so since I last noticed someone following me, I'm not sure if they gave up or what." Astrid took the keys from him and tucked them into her pocket.

Hiccup perked up. "That's good news, that's great news, why didn't say anything earlier?" he asked, though he really meant _why didn't you tell The Night Fury earlier?_

"I wasn't sure if they had stopped or gotten better at hiding it, I'm still not sure."

"If they stopped...do you think it's because they gave up? Or because they don't want Finn anymore?" he asked.

Astrid shrugged. "I guess we'll find out, won't we?"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!** **If you have any comments, questions, concerns, or cries of anguish please leave them in the reviews and I'll see you next time!**


	19. Chapter 19: Bust

**Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait again, I've been preparing for a vacation (which I will actually be departing for in a few days!) I won't have internet for a few weeks but I will try and squeeze a little writing in here and there. I hope you like this chapter and I'll try to post soon, trying for January at the latest.**

* * *

Chapter 19: Bust

"Alright...there it is...it's moving...moving...reaching the target...and…" he took in a sharp breath, his hand tightly clutching the armrest of his desk chair. "And it hit! It's hit the target!" The screen in front of him showed a birds-eye view of the Berk river with the camera centred on Outcast Island, a small red object washed up on the northern point. Hiccup stood from his seat, a wide smile on his face, and turned towards Astrid who was standing beside him. "It worked, now all we have to do is wait."

Astrid returned the smile. "There's a little more to it than that."

Heather, who stood on the opposite side of Hiccup, looked down at the time on her phone. "We've got thirty-six hours and counting until the agreed upon time of meeting, let's make sure everything is ready by then."

"Agreed upon?" Fishlegs scoffed from directly behind Hiccup.

Heather smirked. "Okay, _assumed_ agreed upon time. They'll show, they've got no other options."

"Are we absolutely sure it wasn't a better idea to have the meeting time be a tad later? Thirty-six hours isn't a lot of time to think something like this over," he said, looking around at the others.

"That's the idea, Fishlegs," Astrid said, "we don't want them to think too hard about this, it'll only make them more prepared for our ambush."

Hiccup turned around and leaned against the desk. "Everybody knows their stations right? Me and Fish will be around The Outcasts hideout, keeping watch." Fishlegs gave a nod in response. "Astrid, Gobber, and Heather will be at the meeting spot, ready to meet with Alvin. Oh, and The Night Fury of course."

Heather looked towards Astrid. "Have you spoken to him about the plan yet?"

"Not yet, but he's supposed to meet with me tonight, I'll fill him in then."

"Make sure you all have your phones ready tomorrow night, we'll need to share information during the plan. If The Outcasts start heading back to their base, Hiccup and I will need to know as soon as possible," Fishlegs said.

Heather nodded. "Right, and you and Hiccup will have to do the same. We need to keep tabs on their whereabouts at all times, that'll give us the advantage we need to beat them."

Hiccup nodded before peering down at his watch. "I should get to work, I don't want to be late, Gobber and I will have to leave early tomorrow to prepare," he said standing back up and shuffling towards the door.

"Wait, Hiccup," Astrid called out as she followed behind him. "I have something, here." She handed him a small bundle of clothing. "I gathered up some of my uncle's clothes for Gobber to wear. I know they probably won't notice the difference but the more similar he looks the better right?"

He could see that her eyes lingered on the clothing as she held them out towards him. "Oh, Astrid, you really didn't need to-"

"Please, Hiccup, take them. If this has even the slightest chance of helping us, it's worth it."

Hiccup took the clothes from her with a short nod. "You know, if you wanted to talk about it with someone…"

"I don't."

"Because I know what you're going through."

That made Astrid smile. "I know, thank you. Right now all I want is for this mission to go well. I don't need to be thinking about anything else."

"Sure, I'll see you tomorrow night," he said before turning to leave.

Astrid didn't have time to feel sadness or despair, she had a job to do, and she intended to do it. She was never the type to wallow in her grief, while others coped with their tears and their words, Astrid coped with her actions. Crying did nothing, talking about it did nothing, she only cared to undo what had been done, take back what had been taken. Perhaps Finn was dead, perhaps long dead, but she would fight to return him to her until she was certain he was truly gone for good.

Work was the same as usual, chatting with Heather, arguing with Magnus. Astrid rode home before dark, making no stops on the way back. If The Outcasts suspected anything, she wanted them to see nothing was different. The Night Fury had begun visiting her house, it was darker on her residential street, nobody would see him at night, and there was no chance of someone discovering his visits. She waited quietly for him, preparing dinner and watching as the sun slowly made its way behind the horizon. Only once the darkness of night had completely enveloped the city did she hear the familiar sound of footsteps on the roof. The sound made her smile, and she quickly made her way up to the skylight, the table was now always empty so she could climb up and down with ease. With a soft click she unlocked the window and opened it, pulling herself up and out to where he was.

"You're fast," she commented.

He turned to look at her, he and Toothless were so dark all she could make out was the sheen off his helmet's visor. "Well I got a ride from a friend," he joked.

"There's a plan, and we need you for it," Astrid told him, climbing to her feet and approaching him.

"A plan?" he feigned ignorance.

"We've sent a letter to The Outcasts, claiming to be Finn, offering to submit himself and the other half of the plans in exchange for my safety. Given they also bring their half for authentication of course."

"And what are we really going to do?"

Astrid smirked. "It's good to hear you say 'we' already. The plan is to have Gobber pretend to be Finn. You, me, and Heather will be there to make sure nothing bad happens to him. Gobber will be able to authenticate the plans, once that's done I'll call the BPD and have them all arrested. If they succeed, great, if not, they'll slow them down at the very least."

"Slow them down?"

She nodded. "We're betting on them having suspicions, hopefully they'll bring plenty of men with them. Once we have the plans in sight you'll fly back to Outcast Island, Hiccup and Fishlegs will be there waiting for you, keeping an eye on their hideout. With a large number of their men gone, the base will be significantly easier to infiltrate, you can strike then, get the dragons back."

"I can do that."

"It's a good plan, I believe it'll work," she said confidently.

"It is, but be careful."

Astrid smiled and shifted closer to him. "You'll be there with me, won't you?"

His hand moved up to brush a stray hair away from her face. "Always."

She leaned her face towards his gloved hand, allowing it to lightly graze her skin. "We can do this, all of us, together. We'll save the dragons, and Finn, and Valka."

Hiccup tensed at the sound of his mother's name. He knew he wasn't supposed to know who that was, he had to pretend to be confused. "Valka?" he asked.

Astrid paused, momentarily confused, she had forgotten that he didn't know Valka. "Sorry, she was also lost in the machine, many years ago. She's Hiccup's mother, you still haven't met him yet have you?" she said looking up at him. "He's the one who came up with the plan, he's very smart, one of the smartest people I know. You two are actually similar in a lot of ways."

He laughed nervously. "Is he? Well, by the sounds of it I'll meet him tomorrow."

Astrid furrowed her brows. "How did you know the plan was for tomorrow?"

"Oh, uh, I assumed it would be as soon as possible, with the dragons only getting weaker the longer we wait. We can't waste anymore time."

"So I take it that's a yes then?" she asked with a grin.

Hiccup nodded. "It's a yes, where and when are we meeting?"

* * *

Heather tucked her dark hair behind her ears and reached up to apply the fake blond beard to his face. Gobber was quite similar to Finn in many ways, his height, his build, the colour of his hair, and also his long moustache. He had no beard however, and even though The Outcasts likely didn't know exactly what Finn looked like, the lack of a beard might tip them off, and having one would further cover his face. She brushed deft fingers over the fake bristly hairs and gave soft tugs at it to make sure it was properly secured in place.

"How do I look?" Gobber asked, holding his head up stiffly, trying his best to hold still as she looked him over.

She smiled. "Good, not movie close-up quality but they won't notice that from afar. Try to keep your distance." He nodded. Heather looked down at his leg and patted at the lower section of his pants. "Well your leg looks like any other leg, so that's good."

"I wrapped a towel around the metal, so my pants wouldn't cling to it like it does sometimes," he explained grinning. "It's my hand I'm more worried about," he pointed out, holding his prosthetic hand up. It was made of hard skin-coloured plastic, in the shape of a hand and covered in a thin layer of transparent silicone. The fingers were all able to move independently, a very impressive model to be sure, but it did not look like a real hand, even from far away.

Heather nodded in acknowledgement. "Yes, Astrid told me she would bring gloves and some other things for you. She should be here soon."

" _She isn't there yet?"_ a voice buzzed in her ear.

She turned away from Gobber slightly, moving her hand up to the side of her head. "It's fine Fishlegs, we've got three hours until the agreed upon time, she'll be here soon enough."

" _What if they're early and keeping a watchout, what if they see her enter the building?"_

"Did you see anyone leave the hideout?"

" _...No."_

"Then there's nothing to worry about, if you guys see someone leaving, anyone, tell me immediately. Hiccup's there with you right?"

" _What? Oh, yeah he's here."_ He lied, hoping she wouldn't ask to speak with him.

"Good, I'll let you know as soon as she arrives okay?"

" _Okay."_

Heather turned towards Gobber and shot him a amused look. "Is she bringing me a hat too?" he asked, brushing a hand over what little hair he had left. "I don't exactly have quite the hairstyle Finn had."

She giggled. "Yeah she's bringing a hat, and an old pair of Finn's glasses too."

"Do you know where they'll be coming in from?" Gobber asked looking around the inside of the warehouse, it was quite large, though the windows were small and mostly boarded up, making the space dark and gloomy, something that would work in their favour. Heather pointed to the front, where there were two large rolling doors. They were rusted and barely held together, but they were the most obvious entrance to be found from the outside. The bulk of the garbage and debris in the warehouse was scattered about in front of the door. Crates and old scraps of wood mostly, this would slow down any escape they would try to make. "Where should I be then?"

"Back here will work," Heather said. "Don't stray too far from the door though." She gestured towards the back corner where they had entered from. There was a stack of boxes that obscured the small metal side door that would be their only escape should the meeting go wrong. Right as Heather turned away from the door did she hear the noisy rumble of Astrid's motorcycle pull up and stop outside. A few steps followed and the sound of the door scraping against the floor as Astrid slipped inside. She had a large bag slung over her shoulder and a small bundle clutched to her chest. "You made it, she's here Fishlegs."

" _Oh good."_

Astrid walked over at gave Gobber a quick once-over. "You look great," she said with a smile.

"Is the Night Fury with you?" Heather asked, peering behind her friend.

"No, he said he would head over as soon as it was dark outside, so it shouldn't be too much longer now." Astrid looked down at the bundle of items in her arms and pulled out a brown jacket, handing it to Gobber. "Here, try this out, this was his favourite jacket." She turned her attention back to Heather. "The guys are in place?"

Heather nodded. "Yup, Fishlegs and Hiccup are both keeping a eye on the base," she said tapping the device in her ear. "If anything happens I'll hear about it."

"Feels alright," Gobber commented, shrugging his shoulder as he got used to the fit of the jacket. "Heather said you were bringing gloves, a hat, and glasses?"

"Yes, of course," she said pulling out a simple pair of black gloves, a flat cap, and a small pair of wire-framed glasses. Handing each to Gobber one by one as he put them on. "Perfect," she finally said once he had it all on. "You're his spitting image."

"Really?" Gobber asked, unconvinced.

Astrid took a few long steps backwards. "Well, from here you are." He chuckled at that. "Oh! I almost forgot," she said, shuffling through her bag and pulling out a gun, startling Gobber and Heather, causing both to stumble backwards.

"When did you get a gun?" Heather asked, eyes wide.

"Relax, it's a fake," Astrid said walking back over and reaching out to hand the gun to Gobber. "When they arrive act defensive, aim the gun at them, pretend to get talked down and put it on the floor. Kick it away if they ask you to."

Gobber took the prop reluctantly. "Why? What's the point if I'm going chuck it anyway?"

"It'll take their defenses down, make them less likely to suspect you have something up your sleeve. If you meet them alone, unarmed, there going to think you have backup somewhere, we don't want them to think that. We want them to believe you're alone." He nodded.

"Do you have the fake plans?" Heather asked.

"Yes, right here," Astrid replied, pulling out a thick stack of papers and handing them over. "They're not perfect, plans for some other machine I think...Hiccup sent them to me to print out. None of The Outcasts are engineers anyway so they shouldn't be able to figure out what it really is."

"They look good to me," Heather said, passing them over to Gobber. "What do you think?"

He quickly flipped through the various pages. "It looks like a hadron collider." They both stared blankly at him. "It's for smashing particles together." There was another long pause. "It'll do fine."

"Great, that's all we need," Astrid said with a smile.

There was a buzzing sound from Heather's jacket pocket and she mumbled a few soft curses under her breath as she pulled it out and looked at the caller ID. "Shit, I have to take this, hold on," she said pulling her earpiece out and handing it to Astrid. "Give me a minute." Heather shuffled over to the opposite side of the warehouse and pressed the phone to her ear. "What's he done now?" she asked with a heavy sigh.

" _He was attacked."_

There was a sudden awful clenching in her stomach. "...What? When? Who was it? Is he alright?"

"No, no, he's fine, a black eye, bloody lip, nothing serious."

"Well who did it? Was it targeted?"

She could hear her sigh on the other end. " _I believe it was targeted, but your brother refuses to say who it was who attacked him so there isn't much I can do."_

" _We can't have him moved?"_

" _I already spoke to the warden, he won't do it unless your brother gives names, but he won't give any names. Right now your brother is in the infirmary and they said he'll stay there for the night but…"_

"But they'll send him back there tomorrow."

" _Yes."_

"There's nothing you can do? Can't we...I don't know, sue them or something?"

" _That's not how it works."_

Heather pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned. "So what can we do?"

" _Unless you can convince him to give the names of his attackers, not much. I spoke to him right before I called but he wouldn't listen to a word I said. Maybe you should come down and talk to him, you're the only person he listens to."_

She scoffed. "Barely."

" _Still Heather, you're his best chance. When will you be finished work?"_

"I...I can't come down right now, I've got something important tonight. When do they send him back?"

" _First thing, before visiting hours even start. If you want to talk to him before then you'll have to come tonight. I talked to the warden, he said he would let you in even though visiting hours ended already, but he can't let you in any later than seven or eight. When will you be done?"_

"Later than eight," she said glancing down at her watch.

" _You can't postpone it?"_

Heather sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "It's not exactly something you postpone."

"What's wrong?" Astrid asked, startling her friend.

"Oh, Astrid," Heather said, holding the phone down on her chest. "It's...it's the lawyer, stuff about Dagur, you know how it is."

"Is there a problem?"

"No, no it's…" she sighed, she was terrible at lying to Astrid. "He was attacked, and he won't tell anyone who did it. I'm worried it was targeted."

"Targeted? The men who he was working with you think?" Astrid asked, her brows furrowed with concern. Anything related to Dagur was never good for Heather, Astrid had been friends with her long enough to know that.

"I don't know, but he unless he tells them who attacked him he'll be sent back tomorrow morning," Heather said with a heavy sigh.

Understanding washed over her face, and Astrid put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "If you think you need to go there, be with him, you should go."

"No, Astrid-"

"We can handle this, it'll be fine. I know you love your brother despite everything, I'd hate to see something really bad happen to him because of our plans."

Heather took in a sharp breath. "Thank you, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be." She lunged forward and pulled Astrid into a tight hug. "Go see your brother, make sure he's alright."

"Thank you, I will," she said pulling back and rushing towards the door, grabbing her bag as she left. Heather hadn't brought her car, she didn't want the outcasts to see it, she would have to take the bus and that would make the trip much longer. As she walked briskly down the street towards the nearest bus stop, she put her phone back to her ear, holding it in place with her shoulder as she shuffled her jacket on. "Sorry about that, I was speaking with my boss, I'm heading over now."

" _Great, when will you make it?"_

"I'm not downtown right now, I'm actually quite far out and I have to take the bus. It'll probably take me two hours, give or take."

" _That'll work, I'll call the warden back and let him know you're on the way."_

"Thank you."

* * *

The wind was gusting more than usual that night and it blew them around as they made their way up to the warehouse, the meeting place. Hiccup was hopeful, the plan was well laid out and everyone seemed like they were on the same page. Maybe this would be it, this would be what they needed to save the dragons, get the plans back, help Astrid find her uncle. It all felt so close, he almost had it.

Toothless whirled down in a spiral motion, landing silently onto the roof. Then in one graceful leap, he jumped from the top of the warehouse to the ground below. It was dark already and their figures disappeared into the shadows. Hiccup crept quietly inside, his eyes darting around as he walked, making sure nobody had seen him or Toothless. The warehouse had no functioning lights, so it was very dark inside. The only source of light was the soft glow of the moon spilling inside from a few upper windows, but even in the dimness he spotted Astrid right away.

She stood near the middle, bathed in the pale light as it reflected off of her blonde hair. As soon as he slunk out of the shadowed entrance, she turned and noticed him, a smile spreading across her face. "You're here."

"I wouldn't miss it," he said, approaching her. "I'm sorry I'm a little late, the wind slowed us down." Toothless walked up behind him, placing his head under Hiccup's arm.

"No, no, you're right on time. Hiccup and Fishlegs are keeping their eyes on The Outcasts' base, they haven't left yet."

He reached out to touch her arm, but Gobber stepped into view and startled him. In the dark and from a distance, he really looked like Finn, more than Hiccup had anticipated. The jacket and the beard were all so familiar, Astrid had done a better job than he'd thought possible. "We meet again," he said, words stiff and serious.

"You must be Gobber."

That made him frown. "And you're _The Night Fury_." Gobber hadn't realized the way he had said the words, Hiccup didn't like it, and Astrid was confused by it.

He didn't know what to say, he could feel the frustration in Gobber's voice, but he didn't dare say anything about it. Not while Astrid was listening. "Where's Heather?" he asked, looking around the dark warehouse. In the cluttered, dim space, she could've been anywhere.

"She had to leave, something came up with her brother. It was too important to leave alone, but we should have no problem with the three of us," Astrid explained.

" _Four- uh, five of us."_ Fishlegs said into Astrid's ear.

She touched her ear. "Right Fishlegs, five. How are we looking over there?"

" _Still no movement."_

"The meeting time is coming up, they should be leaving soon." Astrid turned to The Night Fury. "We don't want them to see you when they get here, you should hide yourself. You and Toothless both."

"Where do you want me to hide?"

She looked upwards. "The rafters maybe? They're above the windows so I don't think they'll be able to see you up there."

Hiccup nodded. "Where will you be?"

"I'll hide by the side here, near where Gobber will be. If something happens I can help him get out."

"You don't need to stand so close, stay by the door, I can help him if the meeting goes wrong. We need you to call the police, then get out as fast as you can."

Gobber nodded begrudgingly. "He's right, it's better if you stay back. The Night Fury can pull me out faster, you have your job, all you need to do is call the BPD and escape."

Astrid sighed. "Alright," she said reluctantly, she knew better than to start a argument. "But speaking of the police, I need to make a quick call before they arrive."

"You're calling them now?" Hiccup asked. "If you call now they'll arrive too early."

"I'm calling a detective I know," she said. "I won't tell him our exact address, only the general area so he's close by when I call in. He's an ass but I know he'll listen. We're sort of friends, or at least we used to be."

 _Snotlout._ Hiccup thought. He hadn't exactly been enthralled by Astrid's endorsement of The Fantastic Night Fury, but he wasn't the type to pass up a possible bust, especially not with the BPD's poor reputation as of late. She was right, he would listen.

As soon as Astrid was out of ear-reach, Gobber turned towards Hiccup and gave him a stern, angry look. "You're determined to do this boy? What sort of relationship do you think you can maintain like this?"

"Gobber, not now," Hiccup said, trying his best not to raise his voice.

"When then? When this mission is over? When the dragons are safe? When is a good time if not now?" he asked in a low growl.

"I don't know, I don't know when."

He shook his head with a sigh. "That's exactly the problem, you're not thinking about what'll happen, how this will end, you're only thinking in the present. If you want a future with her, you have to tell her, the sooner the better." Gobber scowled at him angrily, but in truth he was afraid Hiccup would wound up getting hurt in the end.

"Shhh-!" Hiccup hissed, waving his hands. "Don't talk so loud."

"She'll find out sooner or later Hiccup."

"Well she won't today, so stop using that name."

Gobber scowled. " _That name?_ Do you think your helmet makes you a different person?"

"I don't-"

The sound of Astrid's hurried footsteps silenced him, and they both turned to look over at her. Her eyes were wide as she rushed over, hand on her ear, Hiccup could hear the faint sound of Fishlegs voice, but could not make out the words. "They're on the move."

"How long?" Hiccup asked.

"Fishlegs said they got into a van a few minutes ago, so not too long. You should get yourself in place."

He nodded, turning back, climbing onto Toothless, and leaping into the air. They perched gracefully onto one of the rafters of the ceiling. When they kept still they were almost completely invisible, blurring into the deep shadows of roof. "Can you see me?"

"No! You're good!" Astrid called out, hands cupped around her mouth. "If anything happens grab Gobber and we'll meet at the gas station down the block!"

"Got it!" he called back, though the sound of his voice muffled too much inside his helmet for her to hear him properly, his words a barely audible 'mmph' sound.

"What did you say?" Hiccup opted to raise a thumbs up into the air rather than try to speak again. His helmet made it too difficult to be understood from afar, and he wasn't planning on taking it off. "Okay!"

Hiccup watched from above as Astrid spoke a few words to Gobber, before walking towards her place near the back entrance. Gobber shifted behind a tall stack of boxes near the middle of the warehouse, ready to show himself once The Outcasts arrived. The air felt tense in the time they spent waiting for their arrival, it was so quiet, the only sound was the rattling of the metal siding in the wind. Hiccup couldn't say how long it had been, the darkness and the silence made his sense of time fuzzy.

Toothless' ears suddenly pricked up and he looked towards the front of the warehouse. When the sounds of soft footsteps caught his ear, Hiccup knew what Toothless had heard. They were here, it was time. The metal of the large sliding door screeched out as it was pushed open, soft moonlight spilling in as it did. He watched carefully as the men filed inside, one, two, three, four, they continued until near thirty men had entered, the last of which was Alvin. Hiccup was confused, this was more than they had expected, had The Outcasts caught on to their plan? Did Fishlegs not notice how many had left the base? He glanced over to where Astrid stood, she had the earpiece, but she couldn't see the front of the warehouse from where she stood.

"Finn." Alvin's voice rang out. Gobber walked cautiously out from his hiding place, gun held in two hands, pointed towards them. His hat kept low so they couldn't see his face. "There's no need for that, we're here to make terms aren't we?"

"You'll guarantee her safety?" Gobber asked, he used his voice in a low gruff way, a way that made it sound different than usual.

Alvin took a slow step forward, flat palms out. "Nothing will be done to Astrid, you have my word."

"How will you guarantee it?"

"As long as you stay with us, help us, we won't touch her. We have no reason to if we have you," Alvin explained calmly.

"I won't go with you, you wanted the plans, that's all I will offer."

Alvin's face began to darken. "No, we need you." Something was off, Hiccup could feel it in his gut, and he didn't like it.

"That wasn't the deal, I'll authenticate your half of the plans and hand over my half. That's what I'll give you, but only if you leave my niece alone," Gobber said, taking a step backwards.

"That won't do, Finn. We need you."

"You wanted the plans, that's it. You don't need me for anything else once you have them. Give them to me and I'll make sure they're in order right now," Gobber said before using a shaky hand to pull out a thick stack of papers from inside his jacket. "You can leave with them both, but I won't go with you."

"No, look at them in our base, it's more secure there."

"I won't."

Alvin began approaching Gobber, even from a distance anyone could tell that he was agitated. "I'm afraid that won't do, Finn."

Astrid's breath hitched in her throat, something was not right, she didn't think they would want Finn himself, only the plans. They couldn't risk losing Gobber, she had to call the BPD in, even if it meant losing the dragons. She grabbed her phone and began to dial.

"Don't come any closer," he warned.

Hiccup leaned in, he didn't like how this was going, something was very wrong and he needed to get Gobber out of there. "Get closer," he whispered in Toothless' ear, and they crept forward until they were directly above Gobber and Alvin.

This caught Alvin's attention, and he stopped to glance upwards towards the rafters where Hiccup and Toothless were hiding. Though he looked in their direction, his eyes wandered, and Hiccup understood that he couldn't make them out in the darkness. Still, he smiled. "Night Fury!" he yelled upwards. "You're here looking for your kin aren't you? I have them, join me and they're yours!" This confused him. What game was Alvin playing at? What did he want? Suddenly everything that was clear before, became murky and impossible to understand. Hiccup said nothing, Alvin wouldn't be able to make out his words anyway. "Don't you want them back? You saw what I did to the first one didn't you? I know you did." That made Toothless growl and bear his teeth. "We can help each other, you and I."

"No!" That word was easy enough to understand, even through his thick helmet.

"We have a mutual enemy, if you help me defeat this enemy, I will return the dragons to you." Hiccup couldn't think of the mutual enemy that Alvin spoke of, as far as he knew, The Outcasts were his number one concern. Maybe he meant the BPD, but even Alvin wasn't foolish enough to believe he would help them take down the police. It didn't matter how much they hated him, The Night Fury fought crime, not the police. "Night Fury!" he called out again.

"No!" Hiccup said again, if he tried to say anything else, he was sure he wouldn't be understood.

"You don't get it do you? The Outcasts aren't the only ones after the creatures, there are others, more dangerous than us. We're not the ones you should be worried about."

"Others? What others?" Gobber asked, lowering his arms, his disguised voice dropped unconsciously.

Alvin looked back towards him. "Others after your machine, after the creatures. They went after us. Stole from us."

"Someone stole from you? Another gang?"

"No, not another gang. I know all the gangs in Berk, these guys aren't from any of them. They're sneaky, underhanded," Alvin explained before turning his head back up towards the rafters. "Do you hear that Night Fury? If you want to protect those creatures, it's them you have to worry about, not us."

Before Hiccup could even think to say something, Astrid stepped out from her hiding place and yelled out to Alvin. "You're talking about the brothers aren't you?"

"Is that Astrid?" he looked around the warehouse. "What's going on here?"

"Who are they Alvin? What do they want the dragons for?" she asked, walking closer. Alvin began slowly walking backwards, waving a hand towards his men. "Why are you afraid of them? You have the dragons, you could've had the plans! Where are the plans?" The sounds of police sirens grew louder in the background and Alvin looked around frantically, he knew had had been caught. "Where are the plans?" she asked again, louder this time.

"We don't have them," he finally admitted right as the police cars screeched to a halt outside the door, the blue and red lights flickered in through the cracks.

Astrid turned her head up to where The Night Fury was perched. "Go!"


	20. Chapter 20: Enemy of My Enemy

**Wow I actually got this chapter done, phew! I really thought I wouldn't have the time but I guess I got a lot of** **inspiration so that's always nice. I've been watching all the clips and new trailers getting hyped for the third movie, maybe that's whats helping. Anyway, please enjoy this chapter and hopefully I'll be able to post more soon!**

* * *

Chapter 20: Enemy of My Enemy

Heather stopped in front of the jailhouse to catch her breath. It was already long dark by the time she had made all the way there. She had to go from one side of the city all the way to the other, and neither the warehouse nor the jailhouse were accessible by subway, so it was a long trip. Once she had collected herself she pulled her purse straps up and walked inside quickly.

The man at the front desk looked completely exhausted and seemed almost peeved at her presence, even before she had a chance to speak. Glowering down at her when she reached the counter. "I'm here to see my brother, his name is Dag-"

"Visiting hours are over, miss."

"I know that, I was told-"

"If you know, come back tomorrow at eight. That's when they start again."

Heather sighed, she didn't need this right now. "My brother was attacked today, I'm supposed to see him tonight, ask your supervisor. My name is Heather and my brother-"

"You can't tonight, you'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"Listen to me, I was told by my lawyer that I would be allowed entrance tonight before eight. My brother was attacked today, it's special circumstances. If you would speak to your supervisor then-"

"I wasn't notified about anyone coming in for visitation after hours."

"Yeah, I figured that out. I want you to speak with your su-"

"I'm sorry miss, but you'll have to-"

Heather slammed a hand down on the counter angrily. "Listen to me! My lawyer spoke with your warden about this, if you don't know then ask your supervisor! If I have to come back tomorrow morning and explain this to the warden, _you will be sorry_."

The man pressed his lips into a thin line, she could tell he wasn't pleased, but she didn't care. "One moment, miss," he said stiffly as he stood from his chair and walked out through the door behind the desk. He took awhile, and Heather was certain that wasn't by accident. Still, she stood at the desk without budging the entire time, eyes glued to the back door.

Finally, he returned with another man, dressed in a similar grey uniform, only with more badges. "You're Dagur's sister?" he asked, and she nodded. "Do you have any form of identification on you?"

"Yes," she mumbled, rummaging through her purse until she produced her driver's license from her wallet.

The man looked it over, giving a quiet grunt and nod before returning the card to her. "You'll have to leave your belongings out here at the desk." Heather complied, handing her jacket, purse, and wallet over to the guard behind the counter. "If you follow me, I'll escort you to the infirmary where he's staying. I can give you an hour and a half at the most, after that you'll have to go."

"Alright."

He gestured forward to the large metal bar doors that led to the inside of the jail. There was a loud buzzing noise as they began to slowly slide open. Once through they began walking quickly through the long white sterile halls. The jailhouse seemed much larger from the inside than from the outside, and they had walked and walked until Heather was certain they must've made it to the opposite end already. Finally they reached the infirmary, and the man knocked on the small guard room window. The guard inside immediately straightened, pressing a button that unlocked the entrance they stood by. Heather followed the man inside and they shuffled past a few empty beds until they stopped at the foot of Dagur's.

Dagur lay there with the bed slightly upright, a small light on and a magazine in his hands. It took him a moment to notice that someone was there. When he lowered the magazine to see who it was, he revealed his busted lip and black eye. Heather gasped at the sight.

The man cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'll be outside, give a holler if you need anything," he said before walking off to join the other guard by the door.

"Heather, I didn't…"

"What happened?" she asked moving in closer and reaching out to touch his face.

He turned away. "It was nothing, a stupid fight, it happens."

Heather crossed her arms. "Dagur, I'm serious."

"So am I, it was nothing. I got into fights even before I was in jail, it was bound to happen. You know how I can rub people the wrong way."

"It was never his bad, the lawyer said-"

He scowled. "Fuck the lawyer, she doesn't know anything."

She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You have to tell them who did it, you'll be sent back into general population if you don't."

"Do you know what happens to guys who snitch in here? I'll look a lot worse than this if I tell them, I don't need that kind of attention. It's better to leave it alone, believe me."

Heather frowned. "Well I don't. It was targeted wasn't it? This was about something, it wasn't just a dumb fight, I know better."

"The lawyer's been filling your head with this shit hasn't she?"

"Dagur."

"It wasn't like what she said."

"Dagur!"

"Please, Heather."

"No, you need to tell me the truth. I'm trying to help you, we're all trying to help you, but all you do is fight us every step of the way," Heather said, her face scrunched up in anger. "Do you understand what you're putting me through? Putting dad through? You've made mistakes, that's done already, but if you're really trying to change, if you want to be in our lives, you need to tell me the truth. No more lies."

He shook his head. "I don't want you involved in this, if I tell you, if I tell anyone, they'll try to hurt you and dad, don't you understand?"

"So _it was_ targeted."

Dagur sighed and looked away. "Yes, it was targeted."

"You need to tell the warden, and you need to give the names of the people who attacked you."

"Do you have any idea what it means to be a snitch in jail, Heather?" he asked. "Trust me, the reaction will be a lot worse than this. If you're really worried about my safety, stop trying to convince me to give names."

She pulled in a chair and set next to him, scooching in close. "But they're already after you, if the warden knows he can keep you out of general. Somewhere safe."

"They won't hurt me, this was only a warning."

"A warning?"

He nodded. "Yeah, they've noticed how often I've been visited by my lawyer. They're trying to make sure I don't give the names of who I tried to rob that bank with. They think I might go for a plea deal, they want to make sure I know they're still be able to get me, even if I'm in here."

"Who are _they_? The Outcasts? The brothers?"

"Heather, I can't."

"If you're worried The Outcasts will try to hurt me, I'll tell you now, if I'm not on their hit list, I will be soon," Heather explained.

That got Dagur's attention and he jerked his head up to look at her. "What? Why? What have you gotten yourself into? What have you done?"

"You know about the dragons don't you? Those creatures that came out of the machine? I'm trying to save them, Astrid, I, and a few others. We're working with The Fantastic Night Fury. If you were involved with them, if you know what they're doing, you need to tell me right now. We can stop them, then you'll be safe."

"The Fantastic Night Fury? You can't be involved with him, they really don't like The Night Fury. Not after all the meddling in their robberies."

Heather paused. "Robberies? As in multiple? How many robberies have they been involved in? Is this The Outcasts orchestrating all this?"

Dagur shook his head. "No, it's not The Outcasts. I'm already done with them, it's the brothers you have to worry about. They're the ones who sent those guys to attack me. They're the ones robbing banks."

"Who are the brothers?"

"...I can't."

"You need to tell me, that's the only way I can help you. I won't say anything, not even to dad if you don't want me to."

"Heather, please, I can't."

"I'm involved in this either way, what you do or don't tell me won't change that fact. All it will change is how prepared I am to help you, help us," she told him. "If they're threatening you, if they're involved with The Outcasts or the dragons somehow, you have to tell me right now."

He stared at her for a long time, saying nothing. She could see the resolve melt away from him and he sighed, lowering his head. "You can't tell dad, if he's not already involved I want it to stay that way."

"Of course."

"I was with them, The Outcasts, I started from the bottom and was working my way up. I thought I could make it big there, after all they were the most notorious gang in Berk. I was there when they attacked the lab, and when they kidnapped Astrid. I was with them long before that too." Dagur swallowed dryly and looked around the infirmary. It was empty, and the two guards sat in the box by the door chatting with one another. "I got frustrated with how slowly I was moving up, their plan with the machine wasn't going as they had expected either. They only had half of the plans and they had failed to capture Finn. Those creatures, the things you call 'dragons', they were small and weak, nothing like Mildew had described. Even when they figured out-"

"Wait, Mildew?"

"He was a janitor at the lab, he was the one who leaked the information to The Outcasts," Dagur explained. "He said they could turn huge, but for awhile nobody could figure out how to make that happen. Even when they learned how to make them big, they couldn't control them like he could."

"He? You mean The Night Fury?"

Dagur nodded. "At first they wanted Finn, but the last time I was there, all they really wanted was The Night Fury."

"So they could learn how to control the creatures?" He nodded again. "So what happened? Why did you leave?"

Dagur let out a heavy breath. "I was tired of working for them, I didn't see anything to gain from it. That was when I was approached by the brothers, they said they knew how to finish the machine. They told me they would share the power three equal ways, all I had to do was steal the plans from The Outcasts for them. I thought they already had the other half of the plans at the time, otherwise I would've never agreed to such a dangerous job."

Heather furrowed her brows. "Hold on, are you telling me you stole the plans from The Outcasts? They don't have them anymore?" He nodded reluctantly and she jumped out of her seat. "Astrid and I have been trying to get those plans this whole time, and you're saying they had already been stolen?"

"I'm sorry, I...I would've told you if I knew you were involved like this."

"So...these brothers, these men you robbed the bank with, they're the ones who have the plans now? Why have they been running around robbing banks then? Shouldn't they be…" Heather stopped, a feeling of dread began to creep up on her. "Dagur, why are they robbing banks?"

His eyes were so sad and solemn as he looked over at her. "They said that they knew Finn Hofferson had opened up multiple safety deposit boxes in several different banks across the city. They told me we could spread out the robberies, make them look like they were only for the cash."

"Oh my gods...I have to warn Astrid," Heather said before turning quickly and running towards the door. She banged on the glass with open palms. "Let me out, I need my phone!"

* * *

The red and blue police lights continued to flash in the darkness as officers swarmed around the warehouse. The Outcasts had all been apprehended and police were calling in additional cruisers there were so many men to arrest. Astrid leaned on the hood of Snotlout's car, watching them cuff and book Alvin from across the lot. Arms crossed and a thin grimace on her face.

Snotlout approached from behind and gave her a slap on the shoulder. "Only you would look so annoyed after single-handedly taking down the leader of the largest gang in Berk. You should be celebrating, this is a victory," he said with a triumphant grin.

 _It wasn't single-handed, and now we're even further from getting the dragons and the plans than we were before._ She thought, but knew better than to say out loud. "I didn't take them down, Alvin may have taken many of his men but not all of them."

"We got Alvin though, and isn't there a saying about cutting a head off a snake or something like that?" Snotlout said, scratching his neck and looking upwards in thought. "Whatever, the point is; without Alvin, any of his remaining followers will scatter. The Outcasts are over."

That only made Astrid's frown deeper, she was afraid that would be the case. With The Outcasts as they were known disbanded, there was no way to know for certain where the plans and dragons would end up. Their perfect plan had only made their goals more difficult to achieve. "Yeah," she mumbled dismissively.

Snotlout opened his mouth to speak, but before he could the buzzing noise of the police radio grabbed his attention. He groaned and shuffled back into the car, taking the radio into his hand and bringing it up to his face. "What is it? We're at a raid right now, call Larson if you need backup." Astrid could hear him speaking clearly, but the voice on the over end was muffled and difficult to understand from outside the car. "What? Really? Right now?" He grunted in anger. "Well, no, I can't...I've got like fifty guys under arrest here."

Astrid's phone began vibrating in her pocket and she plucked it out, turning away from Snotlout as she pressed it to her ear. It was Heather, and she wouldn't be happy to hear how the plan had gone in her absence. "Hey," she answered dismally.

" _The Outcasts don't have the plans!"_ Heather rasped, a startling urgency in her voice.

Astrid straightened at the frantic tone of her friend's voice. "I know, we got them. Why? How did you know that?"

" _My brother, he was with the men who stole them from The Outcasts, they're after your half, they know it's in a safety deposit box, they're the ones robbing banks!"_ Heather babbled, trying to get all her words out as quickly as possible.

"Wait, slow down, who's robbing banks?"

" _They're trying to get your half of the plans Astrid, you need to move them!"_

Snotlout climbed back out of his car and looked over the hood of his car towards the other officers. "We're going to need some men!" he called out. "Starkard, Minden, Hoark, you're with me! The rest stay here and make sure they all make it to the station!"

" _You need to get to the bank right now!"_

Astrid watched as the three officers rushed over to Snotlout. "What's going on?" Starkard asked, glancing around. "We're needed somewhere else?"

" _Astrid? Are you there?"_

Snotlout nodded. "There's a robbery happening at The Bank of Berk, Hoark and Starkard take your car and follow my cruiser, Minden you can ride with me. They'll send more as soon as they can."

Astrid's eyes widened and she dropped her phone, rushing off towards the back of the warehouse where her motorcycle had been parked. She pulled on her helmet, whacked the kickstand up and whipped down the street with a loud rumble of her bike's engine. There was a uneasy tightness in her chest, her heart pounding, and her breath ragged. How could she have overlooked all the recent bank robberies? She had assumed they were yet another symptom of Berk's growing problem with crime, she never stopped to think it was targeted.

 _Please_. Astrid thought. _Please don't let me be too late._ She whizzed down the streets, weaving in between vehicles and cutting people off at every turn. Many drivers honked at her, but she didn't care, she needed to make it, she had to. Her tires screeched as she turned sharply around a corner and finally stopped in front of the bank. She watched as people rushed out of the doors and onto the street, people swarmed around on the sidewalk, it was chaos. Astrid leaped off of her bike and ran inside, only a few people were left, cowering in corners and under tables. The door that led to the safety deposit boxes was wide open, she looked inside and found it raided, left in shambles. A woman crouched by the door, terrified. "Where did they go?" she asked. The woman just pointed towards the back door, it was open and Astrid rushed outside. There was nothing but an empty alleyway. She was too late.

* * *

He heard the news from Fishlegs, who had heard it from Heather. It was a devastating blow to hear that everything they had worked towards had blown up in their faces in only one short night. Not only had they failed to get the plans from The Outcasts and save the dragons, they had also lost the one and only piece they had held. It was worse than going back to square one, they were further behind then when they had started. He wasn't sure what he could do, but now their only lead, their only hope was Dagur.

If they were going to get any more information from him, they would need to ensure that he, Heather, and their father Oswald had damn good police protection. This would be no easy task, Snotlout and his father Spitelout, the chief of police, had made it quite clear that they had no intention of cooperating with The Night Fury, and they certainly wouldn't agree to award protection to a criminal and his family, not with the bad press they were already getting. There was only one other person in Berk that Hiccup could think of that had the power to control the BPD, but that was a man that he did not want to have to deal with. However with their options slowly diminishing, he didn't have much of a choice.

Hiccup shuffled into the crowded lobby, it was an old historic building, the wood support beams still in place, finished and shined to glossy perfection. The memories of the building had not faded from his mind, though sometimes he wished they would. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and followed the all too familiar path, ducking his head down to avoid anyone recognizing him. Nobody did, and it was unlikely anyone would, the last time he had been here he was barely a teenager, a little scrawnier and much shorter. The office was near the back on the top floor, though there was plenty of security to get through before he made it there. The first layer of security was easy enough, it was the last one he was worried about.

"Stop," a large gruff security officer said, putting a hand out. "You have a press pass?"

Hiccup sighed, straightening his back and letting his hair fall away from his face. "No, I'm...uh, I'm Hiccup Haddock," he said, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket and showing the security officer his I.D.

The officer glanced back and forth between the I.D. and Hiccup, regarding him with suspicion. "You don't look anything like him," the man said nonchalantly.

" _Wow_ , you're the first person to ever say that." The guard stared at him in confusion. "It was a joke."

"Uh-huh," he said, clearly unconvinced. "He never talks about you either."

"Ever heard of the word 'estranged'?"

The officer narrowed his eyes at Hiccup. "I'm going to have to make a call to be certain, it's a security thing, you understand."

"Sure."

He moved away slightly, pressing down on the large piece in his ear. "Sir, we've got someone here claiming to be 'Hiccup Haddock', were you aware of someone with that name coming to visit? No? So- oh. Really? He's what?" The man turned to eye Hiccup. "Are you sure, he looks nothing-...I see, alright, yes sir." He returned to the checkpoint. "It seems everything is in order," he said handing the card back to Hiccup. "You may continue through, around the corner on the right."

"I know where it is, thanks," Hiccup said as he passed through and made his way down the hallway. The closer he got the more uneasy he felt, it seemed like forever since he had been here. Though even forever wouldn't be enough time. The door came into view and he stood in front of it for a moment before finally grabbing the handle and yanking the door open.

It was a well kept room, a large beautiful window on the far wall, neat bookshelves covering the other two. He sat at his desk, a dark red wood with a glossy finish, the gold name plate sitting at the front. " _Mayor Stoick Haddock"_ it read.

Stoick looked up from his computer, taking off his small wire-framed glasses and setting them down. "Hiccup," he said quietly. "You should call if you want to visit, security doesn't like it when people arrive without an appointment."

"It's a little urgent, I would've had I known I was coming earlier." _Actually I would've just gone to the house._ Hiccup thought, he hated coming to city hall, he hated the way people looked at him when they found out he was Stoick's son.

He folded his hands together on the desk. "Urgent? What is it that's so urgent?" Though he sat more upright as he spoke his voice did not make him sound very concerned, quite the opposite.

"You heard about the recent robbery of The Bank of Berk didn't you?"

"I have."

"That attack wasn't random, the criminals involved were looking for some plans and they got them. It's very important that we catch the people responsible. There's a man currently facing charges for working with these men, he has valuable information but won't give anything to us until his father and sister are given police protection. I know Jorgenson won't listen to me, so I'm coming to you."

Stoick stared his son, expressionless. "What plans are these exactly?"

"They were the plans that were being worked on at Finn's lab, they have the potential to be very dangerous if given to the wrong people."

"Finn's plans? I hardly think that a few common criminals would be able to figure out how to build such a contraption. Plans or no plans."

Hiccup took a step forward. "Maybe not, but that's not a risk we should be willing to take."

Stoick sighed. "What does this machine do?"

"It opens a portal."

"A portal?" he asked, unconvinced. "To where?"

"It's not where we need to worry about, it's what. Very powerful creatures exist on the other side and if they are able to learn how to control these creatures the whole city may be in danger."

Stoick frowned and furrowed his brows together. "Creatures? Like the one that The Night Fury rides around?" he asked. Hiccup nodded. Stoick stood up from his chair. "So that's where he came from, if you knew you should've told me or Spitelout earlier."

"Did you hear what I said? We need to do something before they figure out how to rebuild the machine."

"Hiccup, do you know anything about the machine or the creatures? Any information you have needs to be given to the police, they're having enough trouble as it is stopping him," Stoick said looking across the room at his son.

Hiccup shook his head. "No, that's not what I-, hold on, you're more concerned about stopping The Night Fury than stopping the guys who stole the plans for the machine? You realize they could open it and release more dragons into Berk right? If you're worried about one, imagine what kind of damage hundreds could do."

"Dragons?" Stoick waved a hand at Hiccup. "Nevermind, Hiccup, you need to go to the police and give them anything you know about that creature. Stopping The Night Fury is the BPD's top priority right now, not finding those plans. That machine took Finn and two dozen of Berk's best scientists near fifty years to complete. The bank robbers who stole the plans will never be able to rebuild such a complex device on their own."

"You can't know that," Hiccup said through gritted teeth.

"You're not after stopping those men, you've been caught up in finishing that damn thing just like your mother was, and look where it got her. It's better you leave it where it is, nothing good will come from digging it back up."

"So you'd rather do nothing and leave the plans in the hands of known criminals? Instead chasing down The Night Fury, who's only tried to help the people of this city?"

Stoick glowered at his son. "The Night Fury is a known criminal too, Hiccup."

"A criminal for what? Saving lives? Stopping robberies? What horrible crime has he committed that provokes you _so_ much?"

"He's not a police officer, he can't take the law into his own hands whenever he feels like it," Stoick replied, creeping agitation clear in his voice. "That's how you get anarchy. If we allow him to continue it will only set a bad precedent."

Hiccup scoffed. "A bad precedent? What, that the citizens of Berk should be safe? You'd rather chase down someone actually trying to fix the crime tearing this city apart than try to catch real criminals! You're exactly the same, you only care about appearances and nothing else! "

"Hiccup," Stoick warned.

"And for all your talk that _I'm_ the one with ulterior motives, _you're_ the one who still resents this whole project because of what happened to mom. You _hated_ that I wanted to work for Finn, and now you're refusing to help because you want nothing more than for his research to disappear into nothingness. Well maybe you'll get that, but it won't bring her back!"

"Hiccup!" Stoick roared, slamming a heavy fist onto his desk. "That's enough!"

Hiccup stepped back and shook his head. "I thought you'd be different. I don't know why I'd ever think that," he said quietly before turning and leaving the room without another word.

* * *

With everything that had happened, it took her long enough to get to bed. Right as it seemed she would finally drift off, her phone began to ring, abruptly jolting her awake. Astrid groaned, slapping a hand clumsily across her bedside table in the darkness until she was able to get ahold of her phone. Pressing it to her ear, eyes still closed, she grumbled as she spoke. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

" _They've only just allowed me a phone call, and I needed to speak with you as soon as I could,"_ the voice on the other end croaked.

The sound made Astrid's eyes pop wide open, and she quickly straightened up in bed. She'd recognize that voice anywhere, it hadn't even been a day since she last heard him speak. It was Alvin the Treacherous. Her shock quickly turned to rage as her face crumpled up. "You should've used your phone call to get a lawyer, you'll need one you rat-eating, sack of shit."

" _I understand why you'd hate me, we haven't exactly been on the same side this whole time."_

"I wasn't on the side of torturing dragons, no."

" _Whatever conflicts we had before, it doesn't matter now,"_ he continued. " _It seems that our goals have aligned. Now that I am unable to stop them myself, anything I have left, anything within my power, I will give it to you."_

Astrid narrowed her eyes. "What game are you playing at?"

" _The brothers,"_ he breathed out.

She barely heard it over the poor audio, but it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. With one movement she pulled the covers away and got to her feet. "Who are they?"

" _They mean to take Berk, take it with the dragons. They wanted us to work for them, at the time they were only two men, so obviously we laughed them out of the room. I thought it would end there, but somehow they convinced one of my guys to steal the plans for them. That's when I knew they weren't just gonna go away,"_ Alvin explained. " _After they stole our half of the plans we knew they were after the machine, I thought we could get them, use the dragons we had to attack them, but the dragons…"_

"The dragons aren't yours to use," Astrid said.

Alvin laughed bitterly. " _We had many issues to say the least, it took us long enough to figure out how to grow them to their full size. And yes, the molecule made them powerful, but they were completely uncontrollable. Those last few months you thought we were after you, no. No, we were after The Night Fury, he was the only one able to control those things, nobody ever came close."_

"Why did you megadose them then? What good would that have done if you couldn't control them?" she asked.

" _We didn't know what we were doing, we were using the molecule like bait, trying to train them like dogs. Turns out they only need so much before it sickens them. Of course, we didn't know that at the time, and we tried to fix them with the very molecule that was making them sick to begin with. We didn't understand what damage we were doing until it had already been done,"_ Alvin said with a heavy sigh. " _I'll have my remaining men give them to you, but you need to do something for me in return."_

"...I'm listening."

" _I know you're with The Night Fury, you don't have to admit it. I'm sure the two of you were planning on it already, but you need to end the brothers. Find them, destroy them, and make sure they know The Outcasts had a hand in their demise,"_ he said, his voice turning dark as he spoke. " _If they think they can waltz into Berk and take over everything that I've spent my life building, they are dead wrong."_

Astrid paused for a moment, thinking everything over, wondering if he was her the telling the truth or not. Even if she didn't believe him, what else could she possibly do? The brothers had both half of the plans and she had nothing. Astrid took in a sharp breath. "Fine, but I've got a few conditions of my own."


	21. Chapter 21: Stormfly

**I watched The Hidden World the other day, and OMG it was amazing. I'm so happy they managed to make a trilogy where all the movies were good, more often than not they decrease in quality as they go along.** **I know the third one was supposed to be the last but part of me still really wants there to be more of something, I'll take a spin-off, anything.** **Not going to lie, I'm probably going to see it again before it goes on DVD haha...**

 **Anyway, I'll stop rambling about The Hidden World, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 21: Stormfly

"This is a bad idea," Fishlegs said, nervously pacing around the room.

Hiccup pointed to his friend and nodded. "For once, I actually agree with Fishlegs. There's no way he was telling the truth, we've been fighting him this whole time, and you think he's just going to hand the dragons over to you?"

"He said he wanted us to destroy the brothers, that's why he's returning the dragons to us. Alvin knows we stand the best chance of anyone of taking them down."

"And you believe him?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid nodded. "I do believe him. Alvin is a vindictive guy and he isn't the type to go down without a fight. He brought almost all his men that night, without us, he has no way of getting back at the brothers."

"We don't even know if 'the brothers' are real, what if he's making it all up to trick us," Fishlegs pointed out.

She crossed her arms. "They're real, Heather's brother mentioned them long before Alvin was taken in by the police. He told her that the brothers were the ones who convinced him to steal The Outcasts' half of the plans from them. They're real, and they're very dangerous."

"Still, how do you know he isn't using this to get revenge on _us_? Remember we were the ones who got him and all his men arrested, I'd say that's a pretty good reason for him to hate us," he said, glancing to Fishlegs who nodded in agreement. "Somebody should go with you, maybe The Night Fury-"

"No," she said sharply. "If you're right and he is after us, The Night Fury needs to stay out of this. He's too valuable right now, without him none of us have any chance of catching the brothers. That's why I'm telling this to you and not him, I know if I tell him he'll only insist on going with me."

Hiccup stared at her in disbelief. "I'm sorry, so your brilliant plan is to go get killed by yourself? How is this any better? At least if he goes with you, you'll have a way to escape if something goes wrong."

"He admitted to me that The Night Fury was the real person he was after, I'm not going to risk giving him to them," she said. "And as much as they might resent me for having him and his men arrested, he hates the brothers ten times more for trying to take them over. This is about pride, The Outcasts' can't have another gang come in and take over their territory, nobody will ever take them seriously if they let that happen."

"What if you're wrong?" Fishlegs asked. "What if he's lying, and actually is after you?"

Astrid stared him in the eyes. "He's offered to return all the dragons to us. For that, it's a risk I'm willing to take." She looked down at the time on her phone. "I have to go to work soon," she said with a sigh. "Listen, I'll give you a call when I'm about to meet with them. If you don't hear from me within an hour you can call the police alright?"

"Astrid-" Hiccup began, taking a step towards her.

"Hiccup, you're not going to talk me out of this. I'm going." Astrid grabbed her bag from Fishlegs' couch and turned to leave. She was able to slip on her boots and hurry out the door before Hiccup could think of anything else to say.

Fishlegs chewed on his thumbnail and shook his head. "What should we do? Should we let her go?"

"She's too stubborn, she'll never let us talk her out of this."

"So...is that a yes?"

"No, I can't let her go alone," Hiccup said, rushing to the door and chasing after her. He rushed down the stairs and caught her as she pushed through the front doors of the building. "Astrid, wait!" he called out.

She glanced back at him and sighed, turning to continue towards her motorcycle. "I'm done talking about this, Hiccup. I'm going whether you want me to or not."

"I know. I'm going with you," Hiccup said, and that made her stop and turn towards him. "If I can't convince you, fine, but I'm going with you. I won't let you go by yourself, it's too dangerous."

"You don't have to do that."

"I know I don't," he agreed.

"Hiccup," she said with a sigh.

"You've decided to go, I get that," he began. "I can't stop you, but you can't stop me either."

Astrid smirked and crossed her arms, turning to fully face him. "Well, I could always neglect to tell you when and where we're having the meeting."

I pursed my lips and nodded. "Yeah, you _could_ do that. But I would argue that in the same way I've decided to respect your decision to go, _despite strongly disagreeing with it personally_ , you should, in turn, respect my decision to come with you."

Astrid couldn't help but twitch a small smile, choking back a laugh as she placed a finger to her lip. She cleared her throat and settled her expression back to a serious one. "It'll be dangerous."

"Danger's my middle name, can't you tell?" he said flexing his arms downward and baring his teeth like an animal.

"Hm, oh, definitely. Yeah, I see it now," she said holding back a smile. "Listen, Hiccup, I'll-" her smile quickly faded. "If you're really determined to come with me, alright, come. But make sure you know what you're getting into though, this isn't fun and games."

"Don't worry, I know."

Astrid walked over to her bike and climbed onto it, grabbing the helmet off the back. "Meet me at my house tomorrow at eight, and don't tell anyone about the meeting." I nodded, and Astrid stared at me for a moment. "You're sure about this? This isn't-" she sighed. "I shouldn't have brought you into all this. If something happens-"

"Nothing will happen," Hiccup assured her. "Besides, regardless of how I was brought into this whole mess, I'm choosing to stay, because I know it's important, because I want to."

Astrid looked down at her reflection in the visor of her helmet. "You said last time that you didn't help because of your mother. Why did you help then?' she asked looking towards him.

"You needed my help," he said. "Isn't that reason enough?"

"I guess you've always been that type of person, you're a good man Hiccup," she said smiling to herself. Finally, she moved to slide the helmet over her head, using her heel to click the kickstand back up, and with a twist of her wrist, the motorcycle came to life. Astrid gave him a quick wave before turning her bike around and driving off down the street, the rumble of the engine fading into the city.

Hiccup couldn't help but feel a tightness in his chest, was this happiness or sadness? He didn't know. Astrid had a way of twisting his emotions around, making him feel things he didn't understand. He had her, didn't he? She was what he wanted since the first grade, to be with her, for her to be with him. It was good, better than good, for a while anyway. It couldn't last, as much as he brushed off what Fishlegs and Gobber said, he knew they were right, but he had no idea what to do about it. The closer he was to her as The Night Fury, the further he felt from her when he was Hiccup.

The next morning he woke early, sleep was a difficult thing, he had too much on his mind. Toothless lay curled up on the pillow next to him, his tiny body went in and out with each long breath. Work wouldn't be easy, his brain was preoccupied already, spinning and swirling with everything but engineering. A robotic limb that was controlled by thought through nerve receptors became as interesting as a simple potato-clock to him. Night couldn't come fast enough.

"Earth to Hiccup," Gobber said, waving his prosthetic arm in front of his face. "Are you listening to a word I'm saying?"

Hiccup blinked out of his daze, his eyes focusing on the hunched man standing in front of him. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"Gunnar wanted me to ask you if you could help him work on the sensitivity controls for the new prosthetic's fingers," he began, giving Hiccup a long skeptical look. "Do you think you're alright to help? Maybe you should go home early, you've been out of it all day."

"No, it's alright, I'll go see him at his lab," he said standing up and grabbing his laptop, shoving it away into his bag. Gobber looked strained, like he had something he wanted to say, but couldn't say it. "...What is it?"

He rubbed the stubble on his chin with his hand. "You've been getting more and more distracted lately, I'm worried you're stretching yourself thin."

"I've been getting my work done haven't I?"

Gobber shook his head. "That's not the point Hiccup. Maybe having this job, and your _other job_ is too much for you, have you thought of that?"

"I'm fine, grad school was much worse than this."

"What's kept your mind so preoccupied then?" He stared at Hiccup, who said nothing. "It's Astrid isn't it."

Hiccup immediately frowned. "This isn't her fault."

"Of course it isn't, she can't do anything about something she doesn't know is happening," Gobber said. "Maybe you should take a step back from her, this isn't healthy."

He shook his head as he looked down and zipped up his laptop bag. "I'm not talking about this."

"Hiccup."

"I have to help Gunnar, I'll see you later," he said quickly, slinging the bag over his shoulder and hurrying out of the room and down the hall.

Hiccup didn't like running out on Gobber like that, he was a good guy, and he knew he was only concerned for him. Still, it wasn't something he was ready to hear. Hiccup knew that his dual relationship with Astrid wasn't a good idea, he knew it made him anxious, but he couldn't bring himself to give her up. Astrid was the only girl he had ever wanted, there was never room in his mind for anyone else. To give her up felt like giving up on ever having a relationship at all, and he wasn't ready to do that, maybe he never would be.

That night he drove his car midtown to where Astrid's house was, he had never been there as himself before, at least not that he could remember. It felt unfamiliar as he drove up and parked in front of the house. He was so used to arriving from above, looking at it from below made it seem different, almost like it was a different house entirely.

As he climbed out of his car, he heard the sound of her front door opening and shutting, her footsteps pattering down the stone steps towards him. When he turned around, she was standing there behind him, dressed in dark colours with her hair pulled into a tight braid that swayed when the wind blew past. His eyes drifted to the house over her shoulder, it was a nice townhouse, he couldn't remember ever seeing the front of it. "It's a nice place."

"Thanks." Her voice was quiet. "It was...it's my uncle's house."

"I didn't know you lived with him."

"Yeah, my parents retired and moved out of the city when I was in university, he wanted me to stay with him rather than pay for residence. I guess we both got so used to it I never thought of moving out."

Hiccup watched her expression carefully. "We'll find him."

Astrid nodded and cleared her throat, moving to where her motorcycle was parked. Two helmets were strapped to the back seat, she took one of them and tossed it towards Hiccup. "Let's go," she said, climbing onto the bike. Hiccup complied, getting on behind her and pulling the helmet on over his head. As soon as he had carefully wrapped his arms around her waist, Astrid switched the motorcycle on and ripped down the street at full speed.

The wind whipped past them as they drove, with how fast Astrid liked to ride it was no surprise how easily she had gotten used to riding on Toothless. By the houses that passed by them he could tell that they were heading further out of the city, closer to the outskirts. _A trap_ he thought. _Why would they want the meeting so far out of the city if it wasn't a trap?_ Hiccup's hand moved to touch the zipped jacket pocket where Toothless was hidden, he could feel the warmth on his palm through the fabric. At least they would have a way of escape if anything went wrong. Though using Toothless would also reveal who he really was to Astrid. Was he ready for that? His heart rate quickened at the thought and he squeezed his eyes shut. Even thinking about it made him queasy.

They began slowing down, and Hiccup opened his eyes to look around. The area wasn't as deserted as he had expected, it wasn't an affluent area, but it wasn't exactly run-down either. There were people walking around, sitting on steps, hanging around while smoking cigarettes. Astrid took her helmet off and began scanning the area. "I think it's that one there," she said pointing to a small restaurant on the corner. With cautious movements, they approached. The small shop was in disrepair, the windows foggy and spotted, the awning ripped and full of holes, and the sign out front so dirty it was unreadable. Astrid moved closer and peered inside, cupping her hands around her eyes so she could see better. "I don't see anyone."

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Hiccup asked, looking around nervously.

"Pretty sure."

The door opened a crack, just enough for someone's eye to peek out at us. "Astrid?" There was a brief moment as the eye looked her up and down. "Come in," the person whispered.

Hiccup and Astrid looked at one another before hesitantly entering. The inside of the restaurant wasn't much better than the outside. "We're here for the dragons," Astrid said. When the man turned around, her eyes lit up with recognition then quickly narrowed. "... _You_."

"Savage the Staunch will suffice," he said glaring at her.

"Where are the dragons?" Hiccup asked looking around. "That's what we've come for."

Savage's eyes moved from Astrid to Hiccup, then back to Astrid. "Who's this? I thought it was agreed you would come alone?"

"What difference does it make? Did you bring the dragons or not?"

Savage hocked up a ball of spit, it made a disgusting splat sound as it hit the ground. "Fine," he grumbled, shuffling towards the back of the room where the shadows obscured him completely. Hiccup tensed, his hand once again moving towards his warm jacket pocket. Fingers holding onto the zipper, ready for the meeting to go sour. "Here," he said again, emerging from the darkness. In his hand was a cheap pet carrier, pieces of newspaper taped around the slits. "These are the last ones we've got, I hope you know what you're doing."

Astrid took the cage carefully, giving Savage a suspicious glance before opening the door and looking inside. She let out a relaxed sigh, inside were three small dragons, exactly as had been promised. One was red, with a long snout and narrow points all over its tail and wings. The second one had two knobby heads. It was green with red bumps along it's back and two tails. The final dragon was the only conscious one, it stood on its thick hind legs and looked up at her. The dragon was blue and yellow, with sharp spines covering its tail and spikes arranged like a crown around its round head. "Anything else?" she asked, shutting the door on the carrier.

From his pocket, Savage produced a thumb drive and handed it to her. "That's all of it there."

"Good," she said, her eyes moved to meet Hiccup's. "Let's go."

"I suggest you do as you promised Alvin," Savage said as they walked towards the door. "He doesn't take well to people who lie or cheat him."

"The brothers are as much our problem as he is yours," Hiccup said, before following Astrid out the door and across the street. They made it back over to her motorcycle and attached the pet carrier to the back. "What was that thumb drive?" he asked.

"It's all the information they have on the dragons and the machine. I told Alvin to have his men give this to me, we're going to need anything we can get." She handed it to Hiccup. "You and Fishlegs can look over it right?"

He nodded. "Of course, I'm surprised they were willing to give so much away. The dragons, all their information, this is everything they had."

"I told you, the only thing Alvin wants is revenge. If we can get that for him, he'll give us anything he can." She took her helmet from off the seat. "We'll need to bring the dragons to Fishlegs, he can care for them until we get Gothi to check over them."

"And...The Night Fury?"

Astrid smiled to herself. "I'll see him on Friday, I can fill him in then."

* * *

A gentle cold breeze blew through her open window, making Astrid's skin prickle with goosebumps. She kept it open so she could hear the rustling trees and soft flapping sounds that came when The Night Fury flew over her house. Her eyes moved to the far end of her living room, where the small blue dragon lay curled up in a bed she made of old sweaters and scarves. The dragon, for whatever reason, had no ill effects like the others had. She was perfectly healthy and strong. While Fishlegs had taken on the task of caring for the additional two dragons, using the same instructions given to him for Meatlug, Astrid had decided to take the blue dragon to show to The Night Fury. Stormfly was the name Astrid had given her, and over the two days she had with her, she had grown close to the small creature despite how skittish it still was.

A heavy gust of wind whooshed by her window, whipping the trees around and rattling her shutters. Astrid stood from her couch and pushed the window shut. She moved quickly on her feet, climbing the stairs two steps at a time, her eyes drawn to the small skylight window. The familiar sheen of The Night Fury's helmet made her smile as she stepped up onto the end table and unlatched the skylight.

"Come in," she said. "I have news."

The Night Fury gave Toothless a quick nod, then climbed down into Astrid's upstairs hall and followed her down the stairs. "Good news I hope."

"Very good," she said, gentling taking him by the arm and leading him towards Stormfly, who stood up to sniff at the new person. "We have the dragons, the ones that were taken by The Outcasts."

He turned to her. "How?"

"Alvin and I have a deal together, he'll give us everything he has if we take down the brothers for him. He knows that you're the only one who has a chance at stopping them."

"The brothers?"

Astrid nodded. "They're the ones who stole our half of the plans, the ones you've been trying to stop from robbing banks the last few months. They've got both halves now, Alvin or no Alvin we have to stop them."

"How many dragons did they give you?"

"Savage gave us three, the first two were sick, like one Toothless rescued. But the third...is perfectly healthy. I named her Stormfly," she said gesturing to the small blue dragon. The Night Fury crouched out slightly to get a better look at Stormfly, then reaching a hand out to hold the dragon. Stormfly looked at him with caution, backing up slightly. "She's a little skittish, I think everything that happened made her nervous around people."

"It's okay," he whispered. "I won't hurt you." Hesitantly, Stormfly inched closer to his hand, finally nuzzling her head against his fingers. He laid his palm down open on the table, allowing her to slowly walk onto it. Carefully he lifted his hand up to bring her to Astrid. The Night Fury took Astrid's hand and gently moved it towards the dragon, letting it sniff her fingers.

Her breath hitched. "That's amazing, you're so good with them."

"They're loyal creatures when it comes down to it. All you have to do it show them you're not a threat." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small bottle of enlargium. "Do you want to try flying on her?"

Astrid stared at him. "Really?" He nodded. "You can teach me?"

"If you're right and these brothers have both halves of the plans, we're going to need as much strength as we can get." He looked around her living room. "Do you have any rope? You're going to want something to hold on with."

From her backyard shed, Astrid gathered a small bundle of rope to tie around Stormfly's body. Once the small dragon was no longer so small, they both mounted her, leaping off into the sky. The Night Fury sat behind Astrid, his arms guiding hers, his muffled voice whispering into her ears and making her shiver. Flying on Stormfly wasn't quite like flying on Toothless, she didn't have the speed that he had, but she had all of the agility. It was mesmerizing, like the first time she had ridden on Toothless, by the time they had returned to her rooftop it felt like they had been flying all night. Toothless lay curled up on the rooftop napping, waiting for them to return. His ears perked up as they began gently swooping down to land.

"Hey bud," The Night Fury said, giving Toothless a scratch on his neck. "Thanks for waiting." Astrid climbed down, moving a gentle hand over Stormfly's snout, her eyes closed and she leaned slightly towards her. "She likes you," he said turning back to them.

"I hope so, I'd really rather not be eaten anytime soon."

The Night Fury laughed. "You won't be, dragons are social creatures. Once you gain their trust, there's nothing they won't do for you." He looked at Stormfly, who had moved closer to Toothless so she could sniff at him. "You should keep her here, take care of her." She nodded and he reached into his pocket, taking out another small pill and handed it to her. "If something happens, if you're attacked, give this to her, she'll know what to do."

Astrid inspected the small pill in her hand. "This is...enlargium right?" She shook her head. "I'm sorry, that's the stupid name Fishlegs gave it. Remember when I told you about the megadosing? The molecule that they were dosed with, we started calling that enlargium."

"Enlargium?" he laughed awkwardly. "I guess that's a good name for it…"

"Fishlegs...he said he might be able to start making the enlargium at work. So if the dragons need it, we will have it for them. Where have you been getting yours from?"

"Mine?" The Night Fury seemed to tense up. "I've...I brought it from _there_."

"So you have a limited amount of it?" she asked. "Should I have Fishlegs make some right away? Do you need it to survive too?"

He shook his head and hands. "Don't worry about me, it's the dragons we should be concerned with right now."

"You know you can tell me if you need anything right?" Astrid asked.

"Of course," his hand moved to touch hers. Their fingers intertwined and she felt the rough fabric of his riding gloves against her skin. "I don't need enlargium, only the dragons do. I'll tell you if I need more for Toothless." She nodded. "The brothers…" he began again, and her eyes moved up to look into the black sheen of his visor. "They don't know who you are, do they?"

Astrid bit her lip as she thought about it. "I'm not sure, I've never seen or spoken to them. It's possible Dagur told them about me, or they might know about me and Finn because of the machine."

"Do you think they would come after you?"

"It's clear they've been planning to steal the plans for months, if they were after me they would've tried something a long time ago."

He nodded slowly. "You're probably right…"

Astrid reached up and gently touched the back of his head, bringing it closer to hers so she could rest her forehead on his helmet. "It's alright, nothing is going to happen to me." She felt his hands move around to place on her shoulders.

"Is it okay if I come again tomorrow?" he asked.

She smiled. "Do you even have to ask?"


	22. Chapter 22: Partners

**Hello Everyone! Sorry for the wait, I'm back now after finals and some much-needed time spent resting. I should be able to post more regularly now (but no promises). Anyone else really excited that HTTYD finally surpassed High School Musical in the movie category? No? Just me? Well, I won't go on any longer, hope you enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 22: Partners

The continuous click, click, click of the windshield wipers seemed impossibly loud to Hiccup, they completely drowned out the sound of the soft pitter patter of raindrops outside the car. The weather was warmer now, at least warm enough for it to rain. Not ideal circumstances for a visit to the junkyard, but their conflicting schedules made that the only day available. Hiccup drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, his eyes drifting to the woman sitting in the passenger's seat. Astrid sat there, a piece of hair fell from behind her ear as she looked down at her phone, fingers typing away at expert speed. He squeezed the steering wheel, he wished he could kiss her right now, and he wondered what it would feel like.

Astrid looked up from her phone, tucking the fallen hair back into place. "Sorry, I had to send an email to Magnus, it's a work thing."

"No, that's fine. I mean we're waiting around anyway."

She rubbed the condensation from her window and squinted as she looked out. "Where is Fishlegs anyway? How long has it been since you texted him?"

"A few minutes, I think he's gathering Meatlug's stuff."

"How much does he need?" she asked. "We're only gathering supplies." Astrid sighed and turned back to Hiccup. "Thanks by the way, I don't know how else we would've gotten custom saddles for the dragons. We can't exactly buy one on eBay."

Hiccup smiled. "Don't mention it."

"I'm surprised you'd know how to make saddles. You're a mechanical engineer after all, this isn't exactly up your alley."

He shrugged sheepishly. "Well I had to choose something to major in, mechanical engineering is just the field I ended up with. I've been interested in making all sorts of things my whole life."

Astrid chuckled to herself. "Yeah...now that you mention it, I do remember you making quite a few different... _things_ when we were in school. Not completely sure what any of them were, but they were interesting to say the least."

"None were exactly crowning achievements, most only awarded me an invitation Headmaster Heyral's office." He looked over at her. "I didn't think you'd remember stuff like that." _Or someone like me_ he thought.

She smiled. "You did start quite a few electrical fires in the school, I'd say something like that would be pretty memorable."

Hiccup laughed. "Fair enough."

There was a thunk as Fishlegs hastily opened the car door and climbed into the backseat, a large box wrapped up in his arms. His hair was wet, and he was breathing heavily.

"What took so long?" Astrid asked, twisting around in her seat so she could face him.

"Sorry, I was making sure everything was okay for Meatlug. Preparing a few blankets so the box was comfortable, putting a tarp around it so everything stays dry, getting rocks in there in case Meatlug gets hungry. You can never be too careful."

Astrid's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "I thought Meatlug was better now?"

Fishlegs nodded. "Oh she is, I only wanted her to be as comfortable as possible."

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other. " _Her_?" he asked, turning back to Fishlegs.

"Yeah, I called Gothi to come take a look at Meatlug when she started to get better. Gothi inspected her further, told me Meatlug was actually a female with the capacity to lay eggs," he explained.

"Wow...and the other dragons?" Hiccup asked.

"The last two are both males, and they're still recovering," Fishlegs said. "Gothi brought an incubator for me to put them in, it seems they enjoy the warmth. Considering how well it went with Meatlug I'm sure they'll be better in no time."

"That's good," Astrid said.

Hiccup nodded and started the car, the engine rumbling back to life. "We should get going, you said you had to drop by the office this evening right?" he asked, turning to her.

"I do, but you don't have to rush, I can go tomorrow if necessary. You're doing us a favour after all."

He smiled and began pulling out of the apartment's roundabout. "No worries, we're doing this together for the dragons right? The more we have the better our chance of getting the machine back."

The car pulled out into the street and began driving towards The Edge. The rain eased up as they neared, though the sky stayed dark and grey. By the time they had arrived, it was about ten o'clock and barely spitting.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut buzzed them in, and they rolled their way into the parking lot, ground muddy and wet from the rain. Stormfly's tiny head popped out from Astrid's jacket and she gently pushed her back inside. "Soon, soon," she whispered as the twins headed out onto the porch to greet them.

"Keep them hidden," Hiccup said quietly before climbing out of the car. Astrid nodded, zipping up her jacket as she opened the door.

"Hiccster! It's been awhile, where have you been?" Tuffnut called out, approaching the car. His eyes drifted towards Astrid as she climbed out of the passenger's seat, a smile crept across his face. " _Astrid…_ " he looked back to Hiccup and winked, "fancy seeing you here."

Hiccup sighed. "We're here for some parts, _the three of us_."

Fishlegs awkwardly shuffled out of the back, arms clutching the box tightly. He smiled and gave a small wave to them. "Hi."

"Is that fishface?" Ruffnut called as she walked over from the porch, eyes squinting so she could see him better.

Tuffnut looked around at the three of them, clearly confused. "Yeah it is," he replied. "You guys been getting together without us?" he asked, slightly offended. "Don't tell me Snotlout is back there too?"

"He's not," Astrid answered, "and we're working on a project together, it's related to the lab."

"The lab?" Ruffnut said stepping beside her brother. "Sweet, what kind of project?"

Astrid scowled. "It's confidential."

"Aw come on," she whined.

"It's also _time-sensitive_."

Ruffnut frowned and crossed her arms. "Alright, be a party-pooper," she said. "Whatever you find, bring it on up to the main building and we'll cash you out."

Everyone nodded, and Astrid, Hiccup, and Fishlegs headed off towards the back of the scrapyard to find the parts they needed. Hiccup led them towards where he had remembered the leather pile being. The pile was mostly pieces from old car seats, but after a little digging, they were able to find a few discarded saddles to use as the bases. Astrid and Fishlegs continued looking for other parts while Hiccup worked on the first saddle. Sewing old pieces together and reshaping them with his heat gun. After a few hours of work, Hiccup had managed to mostly finish the first saddle.

He stood up, patting the dust from his pants. "Looks pretty good," he said, glancing over his handy-work. "Do you think it'll work?" Hiccup turned to Astrid.

"It should," she said. "I mean, you used the measurements I gave you right?"

He nodded. "How about you test it?"

"Now? Here?" Fishlegs asked, nervously glancing around the scrapyard. "Won't somebody see?"

"Unlikely, this place has pretty good tree-cover. Besides the only people around are Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and they never stop arguing with each other so we'll definitely hear them coming."

Astrid scooped Stormfly out from her jacket, placing her onto the ground. "I'm good to go."

"Are you sure this is a-" But it was too late, Stormfly had already begun growing in size, and before he knew it, she was towering over them.

Fishlegs stumbled backwards, catching himself on an old couch. Though Hiccup and Astrid had become accustomed to the dragons in their full form, Fishlegs still wasn't used to how large they became. "She's...tall, isn't she?"

Astrid eyed Hiccup and smiled. "You're surprisingly brave, Hiccup. I was terrified the first time I saw a dragon."

He laughed awkwardly. "I'm not brave. I guess...I guess I've heard so much about them by now I was prepared to see one."

"Tell that to Fishlegs," she retorted, gesturing to their nervous friend standing nearby.

Hiccup just quirked a small smile, his eyes moving to the ground as he muttered, "Really, I'm not brave," under his breath.

Soon they began the process of attaching the saddle on Stormfly's back. It was a bit of a struggle, her shape was nothing like Toothless' much straighter slimmer frame. Though Hiccup managed to fit it on with a little bit of struggling. "It's not a perfect fit, but you can try it out for now," he said. "I'll bring it home tonight for adjustments."

Astrid brushed a hand over the leather straps and buckles. "It looks sturdy enough to me."

"It's sturdy, but it's not a perfect fit. Stormfly won't be comfortable wearing it for extended periods of time, but if you want to take her for a quick ride she'll be fine."

"Fly? Right now?" Fishlegs asked, looking between the two.

Astrid grinned, grabbing her shiny blue motorcycle helmet from nearby. "That's what we came here for isn't it?"

"We were here to get our saddles started, not to fly."

"How are we going to know if the saddle suits us if we don't try it out?"

"Shouldn't we-" His eyes shot towards Hiccup then back to her. "Shouldn't we wait until The Night Fury and Toothless are here? You know, encase you fall?"

Astrid shrugged. "I'll fly low, I've got _this_ don't I?" she said, knocking on her helmet.

"Make sure you attach the bungee cord to your belt, that way you'll stay on even if you slip," Hiccup told her. Astrid had given much information to him about Toothless' saddle in order to help him build her one. Though he obviously didn't need it, it was nice that there was less he had to pretend not to know about.

Fishlegs moved closer to Hiccup as Astrid mounted her dragon. "You're awfully calm about all this, aren't you worried she'll get hurt?"

"She's smart, she'll be fine. Besides, The Night Fury taught her a few things already, this isn't exactly her first time. C'mon, let's work on your saddle while she's up there, we don't have much time left." They watched for a brief moment as Astrid and Stormfly leapt up and soared off into the sky, just above the treetops. She looked happy up there, it reminded Hiccup a little of himself when he first learned. He stared at her smiling face a moment longer before moving back towards the scrap pile.

"You should tell her," Fishlegs said to him as he rummaged through the pile of old leather scraps.

Hiccup sighed. "Haven't we been over this enough times?"

"This isn't like how it was back in high school, you two know each other, she respects you, she likes you for who you are, the Hiccup you."

"Those are two different types of like, Fish. Just because she can be friends with me doesn't mean she'll ever be interested in me that way. The way she is with him."

Fishlegs shook his head, confused. " _Him?_ Why do you insist on talking about The Night Fury like he's a different person? You and him are the same."

Hiccup scoffed. "That's where you're wrong, we couldn't be more different."

"Hiccup-"

There was a great gust of air as Stormfly swooped down and landed on the ground with a thud. Astrid looked exhilarated, she was out of breath and her hair was windswept. "You did a great job with the saddle, it works perfectly."

"That's good to hear," he said. "Take it off, I'll adjust the fit on Stormfly and return it to you when I can."

"Before I do that," she began looking over them, "do either of you want to come on a ride with me? It's the best feeling, I swear."

"Is that a good idea? What if she can only carry one person at a time?"

"Well Toothless has flown with both me and The Night Fury on him, and if anything he's smaller than Stormfly," Astrid said.

Fishlegs shook his head. "I don't know..."

"Fine. Hiccup?" she asked, turning towards him. He smiled dumbly and nodded. "Great, let's go." Fishlegs seemed utterly flabbergasted as the two climbed up onto Stormfly's saddle again and jumped back into the air.

With his arms clutched carefully around Astrid's waist, he remembered what it was like the first time she took him on her motorcycle, but it also felt reminiscent of the first time he had taken her on Toothless. Either way, he couldn't help but smile and laugh along with her.

* * *

There was a loud buzzing sound as the heavy metal gates slid open for them. The guard led them along the halls until they reached the visitation room, opening the door to reveal Dagur already sitting in the seat across from them.

"Knock on the door when you're finished," the guard said, letting the door slam behind them.

"Heather," he said, smiling. It looked like he had wanted to stand and hug her, but the cuffs holding him to the table prevented it. Then his eyes reached Astrid, and he suddenly looked apprehensive. "...is this another lawyer? Because I told dad that-"

"She's not a lawyer," Heather quickly corrected. "I may have mentioned her a few times, she's my friend, Astrid Hofferson."

Dagur's eyes darkened. "Heather...what did you come here for?"

"You know what we came here for," Astrid said, crossing her arms and taking one of the seats across from him. Now that she was closer, she could see the faint, nearly healed bruising around his face and on his arms.

He looked back to his sister. "I already told you, _I told you_ what you wanted to know, more than I should have. I can't tell you anymore about them."

"Yes you can," Heather snapped back. "I appreciate your concern for me and dad, but I'm already involved and you can't change that. Even if you could, if the brothers finish the machine, dad and I won't be safe, nobody in Berk will."

"We're looking into getting Heather and your dad protective custody, but you have to give us something, anything," Astrid said.

Dagur scoffed, leaning back in his chair and glaring at Astrid. " _Looking into_ isn't fucking good enough, if I tell you _anything_ they're going to try and murder my father and my sister, what fucking part of that don't either of you understand?"

"Dagur!" Heather hissed. "Don't you speak to her like that, you're the one who helped the people who kidnapped her, and then you helped the people who stole her uncles plans. Why can't you try to do something _good_ for once?"

His eyes lowered.

Astrid calmly leaned forward. "Listen, the guards think we're here to discuss your trial right now. Nothing you say will be public or used in court. The brothers or whoever, they'll never have to know you were the one who said anything." Dagur slowly looked up towards her. "All we're asking is you give us, and only us, anything you can that might help us stop them before they do any real harm. This isn't about your trial, it's about more than that now."

He looked over to Heather again. "...And you're looking to get protective custody for dad?"

"Dad...and me."

"You'll go?"

"If necessary, yes."

"But if you help us catch them before they suspect anything, they won't have to," Astrid told him.

Dagur sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "Alright...alright."

"What do you know, Dagur?" Heather asked, moving to sit next to Astrid.

"Viggo and Ryker Grimborn, that's them," he began, "they were alone when I started working with them, Viggo was the brains and Ryker was the muscle. They didn't tell me much about their plans, they only told me one step at a time, so I don't know much of what they'd be doing now."

Heather reach over the table and touched his hand. "That's alright...do you know where their hideout is? Where they might try to build the machine?"

He sighed and nodded. "There was one place they had…"

The heavy glass doors slammed behind them as Heather and Astrid walked back out onto the bustling streets of Berk. "We have the location...now we need to get everyone on the same page for an ambush, who do we have?" Heather asked, turning to her friend.

"Hiccup made saddles for Fishlegs and I, then there's The Night Fury, you...and that's about it."

"Fishlegs rode a dragon?"

Astrid shrugged and they began walking down the street towards the Terror Mail building. "Not _rode_ per say...but he has the capacity to ride in the future. I mean, you should see him with Meatlug, it's adorable."

Heather looked off in thought, slowly nodding to herself. "Well, that's pretty good, we may not have an army, but three dragons isn't half-bad. Does The Night Fury know about you and Fishlegs having ridable dragons now?"

"Yeah, I've told him," Astrid said. "As for the ambush, I'll talk to him tonight about it so we can get moving as soon as possible."

" _Tonight?_ That's fast considering he doesn't have a cellphone. You two have been seeing a lot of each other haven't you?" she asked, nudging her friend with a cheeky smile.

"You could say that," Astrid replied nonchalantly.

Heather's grin only grew wider. "Did something happen that I don't know about?"

"You could say that," she repeated, this time her attempt to hold back a smile failed, and she pursed her lips to subdue it as best she could.

"Oh my gods, something did happen! You didn't tell me?" Heather exclaimed, grabbing onto Astrid's arm and stopping in her tracks.

"There's been a lot going on lately, and I didn't really have the chance to talk about it."

She squeezed her arm tighter. "When? Where?"

Astrid turned towards her. "The day we got Meatlug."

"Him?"

"Me."

"No," she replied, shocked.

"I couldn't help myself, he's such a sweetheart when you get to know him. He's...really genuinely brave and kind, all he wants is to help the dragons, help people. That's rare these days."

Heather smirked. "So you're telling me you _didn't_ decide to date the masked vigilante because he's super hot and a badass?"

She couldn't help but laugh, before continuing down the street. "I mean, the badass part didn't exactly hurt his chances, but considering I've never seen his face I can't really say I'm with him for his looks."

"Wait," she said catching up to her friend, "you've _never_ seen his face? What if he's horribly disfigured or something? What if he's secretly an alien?"

Astrid averted her gaze for a moment. She knew in a certain sense that he was basically an alien, who knows what he really looked like. But somehow that thought didn't bother her much. "Then I guess we'll have to figure that out together."

"Shit...you're serious about him."

She smiled to herself. "Yeah, I am actually."

Heather linked arms with her. "You have to tell me everything." Astrid only chuckled to herself as they continued on down the street towards their building. She couldn't help but think it was nice to feel normal, at least for a brief moment. It seemed like forever since she and Heather had chatted about boyfriends this way.

All the questions began to make Astrid wonder if she and The Night Fury were boyfriend and girlfriend. Though they had discussed and made their feelings quite clear, they never really said what they were to each other. She wasn't even certain he understood what it meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend.

"...and the dragons?" The Night Fury asked.

"Stormfly is strong, I've flown on her a few times now. Hiccup has finished our saddles and I'm ready to fly her when we ambush the brothers." Astrid paused, biting her lip. "Meatlug is strong too, though I'm not certain Fishlegs is ready to fly her yet. You should've seen him the first time I made him...he was petrified."

He nodded. "It's only natural." Then he turned to her, and though she could not see it, she could hear the smirk in his voice. "For some people anyway."

Astrid couldn't help but laugh. "I can't tell if you're trying to brag, or compliment me."

"Can't it be both?" he asked, shrugging cheekishly.

She paused again, staring into the sheen of his helmet. "Night Fury...what are we?"

He hesitated. "...What do you mean?"

"Where you're from you must have some concept of girlfriends and boyfriends, lovers, you know." Her eyes never faltered. "Am I that...for you?"

"I…" he seemed nervous, starting to turn his face away from hers.

With a hand she moved it back. "If I'm not, you can tell me to my face. I won't be angry, but I need to know."

"I'm...whatever you want me to be, Astrid," he began, his voice anxious and small. "I had hoped we were...lovers…" It was adorable to her how embarrassed he sounded as he choked out the words. "I always assumed that if you liked someone, and they liked you back, that's what you became."

Astrid smiled and kissed the side of his helmet. "Then that's what we are." His gloved hand moved to caress her cheek, and she could feel his eyes burning into hers, she only wished she could see them. She what colour they were.

Something high-pitched cut through the soft sounds of the city around them. A siren. They looked over the rooftops until they found the flickering red lights zooming across the cityscape. It wasn't too far, they could fly there in a few minutes.

"I should go." The Night Fury moved to mount Toothless, who sat curled up on the far side of her roof.

Astrid tugged on his sleeve. "Hold on. Wait for me to get Stormfly, I'll come with you."

"You don't-"

"We're partners aren't we?" she interjected with a cocky smile.

The Night Fury chuckled. "Of course we are. You'd better hurry, Toothless is the fastest there is."

" _Was_ the fastest you mean," she said before jumping through the skylight and rushing to her room to grab Stormfly and her helmet.

Once she reached the rooftop they quickly flew off into the night, soaring towards the red lights in the distance. They scanned the city below as they flew, it wasn't quite seven yet so the streets still bustled with people rushing home for the evening. Neither could see any smoke or hear any commotion that might lead them to the distress faster than simply following the police cars.

"This is…" The Night Fury said to himself as he looked down at where they were heading.

"Do you see anything?" Astrid asked.

"It looks like they're heading towards the university," he told her.

She looked ahead to where the campus was, and they did seem to be heading in that direction. Towards Berk University. The reason why she couldn't think of right away, but when it hit her, it hit her hard. "Oh no, Hiccup." Her head whipped around to look at him. "That's where Hiccup works, and Gobber too! What if they found out they were working with us?"

"How would they know that?"

"I don't know, but we need to hurry," she said, urging Stormfly to soar faster towards the university, The Night Fury close behind her.

As they grew closer, the sound of occasional gunshots could be heard below. They followed the sound until they reached one of the far research buildings. A few police cars had already made it on site and were having a shoot-out with a few men in masks. By the looks of it, the police were out-manned and out-gunned. Astrid gasped, at a second glance she recognized one of the officers as Snotlout himself, struggling to keep going as he bled from a wound on his side. "That's Snotlout!" she exclaimed.

"We've got to help, Toothless, blast them!"

"Wait!" Astrid called out. "They're right next to their cars, you could cause an explosion!"

"What do we do then? If we fly too low they'll start shooting at us."

She looked down at the men, quickly counting out how many there were. "I think I've got a plan...Stormfly, spine shot!" Stormfly whipped her tail around shooting out several spikes and hitting each of the shooters with one.

The Night Fury's head whipped around. "When did you learn to do that?"

Astrud shrugged. "A few days ago."

"Oh, shit-" he said, noticing as one of the men pulled the spike from his shoulder and made a break towards the edge of campus. Toothless dove down, landing with an incredible thud and stopping the man dead in his tracks.

Stormfly landed next to him a few seconds after. "I'll ask this once. Would you rather deal with us, or them?" Astrid asked, gesturing towards the officers as they ran towards them.

He fell to his knees, hands up in defeat.

Moments before the officers descended upon them, Toothless and Stormfly leapt back up into the air and flew away. Snotlout, clutching the wound on his side, watched them from the ground below.


End file.
